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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Dead Command, by Vicente Blasco Ibáñez,
+Translated by Frances Douglas
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: The Dead Command
+       From the Spanish Los Muertos Mandan
+
+
+Author: Vicente Blasco Ibáñez
+
+
+
+Release Date: October 27, 2008  [eBook #27068]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DEAD COMMAND***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Chuck Greif, Brett Fishburne, and the Project Gutenberg
+Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net)
+
+
+
+THE DEAD COMMAND
+
+by
+
+VICENTE BLASCO IBANEZ
+
+Author of "Sonnica"
+
+From the Spanish LOS MUERTOS MANDAN
+
+Translation by Frances Douglas
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+New York
+Duffield & Company
+1919
+
+
+
+
+PART FIRST
+
+
+
+
+THE DEAD COMMAND
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+A MAJORCAN PALACE
+
+
+Jaime Febrer arose at nine o'clock. Old Antonia, the faithful servant
+who cherished the memory of the past glories of the family, and who had
+attended upon Jaime from the day of his birth, had been bustling about
+the room since eight o'clock in the hope of awakening him. As the light
+filtering through the transom of a broad window seemed too dim, she
+flung open the worm-eaten blinds. Then she raised the gold-fringed, red,
+damask drapery which hung like an awning over the ample couch, the
+ancient, lordly, and majestic couch in which many generations of Febrers
+had been born and in which they had died.
+
+The night before, on returning from the Casino, Jaime had charged her
+most earnestly to arouse him early, as he was invited to breakfast at
+Valldemosa. Time to get up! It was the finest of spring mornings; in the
+garden birds were singing in the flowery branches swayed by the breeze
+that blew over the wall from the sea.
+
+The old servant, seeing that her master had at last decided to get out
+of bed, retreated to the kitchen. Jaime Febrer strolled about the room
+before the open window almost nude. There was no danger of his being
+seen. The dwelling opposite was an old palace like his own, a great
+house with few windows. From his room he could see a wall of indefinite
+color, with deep scars, and faint traces of ancient frescoes. It was so
+near, the street being extremely narrow, that it seemed as if he might
+touch it with his hand.
+
+Nervous on account of an important event which was to take place in the
+morning, he had passed a restless night, and the heaviness following the
+short and indifferent sleep led him to seek eagerly the invigorating
+effect of cold water. Febrer made a sorry grimace as he bathed in the
+primitive, narrow, and uncomfortable tub. Ah poverty! His home was
+devoid of even the most essential conveniences despite its air of
+stately luxury, a stateliness which modern wealth can never emulate.
+Poverty with all its annoyances stalked forth to meet him at every turn
+in these halls which reminded him of splendidly decorated theaters he
+had seen in his European travels.
+
+Febrer glanced over the grandiose room with its lofty ceiling as if he
+were a stranger entering the apartment for the first time. His powerful
+ancestors had built for giants. Each room in the palace was as large as
+a modern house. The windows were without glass all over the house and in
+winter they had to be closed by wooden shutters which admitted no light
+except that entering through the transoms, and these were studded with
+crystals cracked and dimmed by time. Lack of carpets disclosed floors of
+soft Majorcan sandstone cut in small rectangles like wooden blocks. The
+rooms still boasted the old-time splendor of vaulted ceilings, some
+dark, with skilfully fitted paneling, others with a faded and venerable
+gilding forming a background for the colored escutcheons which were
+emblazoned with the coat of arms of the house. In some rooms the high
+walls, simply whitewashed, were covered by rows of ancient paintings,
+and in others were concealed by rich hangings of gay colors which time
+had failed to destroy. The sleeping room was decorated with eight
+enormous tapestries of a shade of dull green leaves representing
+gardens, broad avenues of trees in autumnal foliage leading to a small
+park where deer were frisking, or where solitary fountains dripped into
+triple basins. Above the doors hung old Italian paintings in soft brown
+tones representing nude, amber-hued babes fondling curly lambs. The arch
+dividing the alcove from the rest of the apartment suggested the
+triumphal order, its fluted columns sustaining a scroll-work of carved
+foliage with the softened luster of faded gilding, as if it were an
+ancient altar. Upon an eighteenth century table stood a polychrome
+statue of Saint George treading Moors beneath his charger; and beyond
+was the bed, the imposing bed, a venerable family monument. Antique
+chairs with curved arms, the red velvet so worn and threadbare as to
+disclose the white woof, jostled against modern cane-bottomed chairs and
+the wretched bathtub.
+
+"Ah, poverty!" sighed the heir of the estate.
+
+The old Febrer mansion, with its beautiful unglazed casements, its
+tapestry-filled halls, its carpetless floors, its venerable furniture
+jumbled with the meanest of chattels, reminded him of a poverty-stricken
+prince wearing his brilliant mantle and his glittering crown, but
+barefooted and destitute of underclothing.
+
+Febrer himself was like this palace--this imposing and empty frame which
+in happier times had sheltered the glory and wealth of his ancestors.
+Some had been merchants, others soldiers, navigators all. The Febrer
+arms had floated on pennants and flags over more than fifty full-rigged
+ships, the pride of the Majorcan marine, which, after clearing from
+Puerto Pi, used to sail away to sell the oil of the island in
+Alexandria, taking on cargoes of spices, silks, and perfumes of the
+Orient in the ports of Asia Minor, trading in Venice, Pisa, and Genoa,
+or, passing the Pillars of Hercules, plunging into the fogs of Northern
+seas to carry to Flanders and the Hanseatic Republics the pottery of the
+Valencian Moors called majolica by foreigners because of its Majorcan
+origin. These voyages over pirate-infested seas had converted this
+family of rich merchants into a tribe of valorous warriors. The Febrers
+had now fought, now entered into alliances with Turkish corsairs, with
+Greeks, and with Algerines; they had sailed their fleets through
+Northern seas to face the English pirates, and, on one occasion, at the
+entrance of the Bosphorus, their galleys had rammed the vessels of
+Genoese merchants who were trying to monopolize the commerce of
+Byzantium. Finally, this family of soldiers of the sea, on retiring from
+maritime commerce, had rendered tribute of blood in the defense of
+Christian kingdoms and the Catholic faith by enlisting some of its
+scions in the holy Order of the Knights of Malta. The second sons of the
+house of Febrer, at the very moment of receiving the water of baptism,
+had the eight-pointed white cross, symbolizing the eight beatitudes,
+sewed to their swaddling-bands, and on reaching manhood they became
+captains of galleys of the warlike Order, and ended their days as
+opulent knights commanders of Malta recounting their deeds of prowess to
+the children of their nieces, being tended in their illnesses and having
+their wounds dressed by the slave women with whom they lived despite
+their vows of chastity. Renowned monarchs passing through Majorca would
+leave their sumptuous quarters in the Almudaina to visit the Febrers in
+their palace. Some members of this great family had been admirals in the
+king's armada; others governors of far distant lands; some slept the
+eternal sleep in the Cathedral of La Valette beside other illustrious
+Majorcans, and Jaime had done homage at their tombs during one of his
+visits to Malta.
+
+La Lonja, the graceful Gothic structure near the sea at Palma, had been
+for centuries a feudal possession of his forefathers. Everything was for
+the Febrers which was flung upon the mole from the high-forecastled
+galleons, from Oriental cocas with their massive hulls, from fragile
+lighters, lateen-sailed settees, flat-bottomed tafureas, and other
+vessels of the epoch; and in the great columnar hall of La Lonja, near
+the Solomonic pillars which disappeared within the shadows of the
+vaulted ceilings, his ancestors in regal majesty used to receive
+voyagers from the Orient who came clad in wide breeches and red fezzes;
+Genoese and Provencals wearing capes with monkish hoods; and the valiant
+native captains of the island covered with their red Catalonian helmets.
+Venetian merchants sent their Majorcan friends ebony furniture
+delicately inlaid with ivory and lapis lazuli, or enormous, heavy
+plate-glass mirrors with bevelled edges. Seafarers returning from Africa
+brought ostrich feathers and tusks of ivory; and these treasures and
+countless others added to the decoration of the halls, perfumed by
+mysterious essences, the gifts of Asiatic correspondents.
+
+For centuries the Febrers had been intermediaries between the Orient and
+the Occident, making of Majorca a depository for exotic products which
+their ships afterward scattered throughout Spain, France, and Holland.
+Riches flowed in fabulous abundance to the house. On some occasions the
+Febrers had made loans to their sovereigns, but this did not prevent
+Jaime, the last of the family, after losing in the Casino the night
+before everything which he possessed--some hundreds of pesetas--from
+borrowing money for a journey to Valldemosa on the following morning
+from Toni Clapes, the smuggler, a rough fellow of keen intelligence, the
+most faithful and disinterested of his friends.
+
+While Jaime stood combing his hair he intently studied his image in an
+antique mirror, cracked and dimmed. Thirty-six! He could not complain of
+his looks. He was ugly, but it was a grandiose ugliness, to adopt the
+expression of a woman who had exercised a peculiar influence over his
+life. This ugliness had yielded him some satisfactory adventures. Miss
+Mary Gordon, a blonde-haired idealist, daughter of the governor of an
+English archipelago in Oceanica, traveling through Europe accompanied
+only by a maid, had met him one summer in a hotel at Munich. She it was
+who first became impressed, and it was she who took the first steps.
+According to the young lady, the Spaniard was the living picture of
+Wagner in his youth. Smiling at the pleasant memory, Febrer contemplated
+the prominent brow which seemed to oppress his imperious, small, ironic
+eyes. His nose was sharp and aquiline, the nose common to all the
+Febrers, those daring birds of prey who haunted the solitudes of the
+sea. His mouth was scornful and receding, his lips and chin prominent
+and covered by the soft growth of the beard and mustache, thin and fine.
+
+Ah, delicious Miss Mary! Their happy pilgrimage through Europe had
+lasted almost a year. She was madly enamored on account of his
+resemblance to a genius, and wished to marry him; she told him of the
+governor's millions, mingling her romantic enthusiasm with the practical
+tendencies of her race; but Febrer ran away at last, before the English
+woman should in her turn leave him for some orchestra director or other
+Who might be an even more striking double of her idol.
+
+Ah, women!... Jaime straightened his figure which was manly, though the
+shoulders bent somewhat from his excessive stature. It had been some
+time since he had taken interest in women. A few gray hairs in his
+beard, a slight wrinkling around the eyes, revealed the fatigues of a
+life which, as he said, had whirled "at full speed." But even so he was
+popular, and it was love that should lift him out of his pressing
+situation.
+
+Having finished his toilette he left the dormitory. He crossed a vast
+salon lighted by the sunshine filtering through shutters in the windows.
+The floor lay in shadow and the walls shone like a brilliant garden,
+covered as they were by interminable tapestries with figures of heroic
+size. They represented mythological and biblical scenes; arrogant dames
+with full pink flesh standing before red and green warriors; imposing
+colonnades; palaces hung with garlands; scimitars aloft, heads strewed
+over the ground, troops of big-bellied horses with one foot lifted; a
+whole world of ancient legends, but with colors fresh and vernal,
+despite their centuries, bordered with apples and foliage.
+
+As Febrer passed through the stately hall he glanced ironically at these
+treasures, the inheritance from his ancestors. Not one of them was his!
+For more than a year these tapestries, and also those in the dormitory,
+and throughout the house, had been the property of certain usurers of
+Palma who had chosen to leave them hanging in their places. They were
+awaiting the chance visit of some wealthy collector who would pay more
+royally believing them to be purchased direct from their owner. Jaime
+was only their custodian, in danger of imprisonment should he prove
+false to his trust.
+
+Reaching the center of the salon, he turned aside, impelled by habit,
+but seeing nothing to obstruct his passage, he burst into a laugh. A
+month ago a choice Italian marble table which the famous knight
+commander, Don Priamo Febrer, had brought back from one of his
+privateering expeditions had still stood here. Neither was there
+anything for him to stumble against farther on; the enormous hammered
+silver brazier resting on a support of the same metal, upheld by a
+circular row of cupids, Febrer had also converted into cash, selling it
+by weight! The brazier reminded him of a gold chain presented by the
+Emperor Charles V to one of his ancestors which he had sold in Madrid
+years ago, also by weight, with the addition of two ounces of gold on
+account of its artistic finish and its antiquity. Afterward he had heard
+a vague rumor that the chain had been re-sold in Paris for a hundred
+thousand francs. Ah, poverty! Gentlemen could no longer exist in these
+times!
+
+His gaze was drawn by the glitter of some enormous writing desks of
+Venetian workmanship, mounted upon antique tables sustained by lions.
+They seemed to have been made for giants; their innumerable deep drawers
+were inlaid in bright colors with representations of mythological
+scenes. They were four magnificent museum pieces, a feeble reminder of
+the ancient splendors of the house. Neither did these belong to him.
+They had shared the fate of the tapestries, and were here awaiting a
+purchaser. Febrer was merely the concierge of his own house. The Italian
+and Spanish paintings hanging on the walls of two adjoining rooms, the
+handsomely carved antique furniture, its silk upholstery now threadbare
+and torn, also belonged to his creditors--in fact, whatever there had
+been of value in his venerable heritage!
+
+He passed into the reception hall, a cold, spacious room with elevated
+ceiling, in the center of the palace, which connected with the stairway.
+The years had tinged the white walls with the creamy shade of ivory. One
+must throw his head well back to see the black paneling of the ceiling.
+Casements near the cornice together with the lower windows lighted this
+immense, austere apartment. The furnishings were few and of romantic
+severity; broad armchairs with seats and backs of leather studded with
+nails; oak tables with twisted legs; dark chests with iron locks showing
+against upholstery of moth-eaten green cloth. The yellowish-white walls
+were only visible, as a sort of grill-work, between rows of canvases,
+many of them unframed. There were hundreds of paintings, all badly done,
+and yet interesting pictures painted for the perpetuation of the glories
+of the family, executed by old Italian and Spanish artists who chanced
+to be passing through Majorca. A traditional charm seemed to emanate
+from the portraits. Here was the history of the Mediterranean, traced by
+crude and ingenuous brushes; sea fights between galleys, assaults upon
+fortresses, naval battles enveloped in smoke. Above the clouds floated
+the pennants of the ships and rose the tower-like poops with flags
+bearing the Maltese cross or the crescents crinkling from the rail. Men
+were fighting on the decks of the ships or in small boats which floated
+near; the sea, reddened by blood and lurid from the flames of the
+burning vessels, was dotted with hundreds of little heads of men still
+fighting upon the waves. A mass of helmets and three-cornered Schomber
+hats mingled upon two vessels which grappled another where swarmed white
+and red turbans, and above them all rose hands grasping pikes,
+scimitars, and boarding-axes. Shots from cannons and blunderbusses rent
+the smoke of battle with long red tongues. In other canvases, no less
+dark, could be seen castles hurling firebrands from their embrasures,
+and at their bases warriors almost as big as the towers, distinguished
+by eight-pointed white crosses upon their cuirasses, were setting their
+ladders against the walls to clamber to the assault.
+
+The paintings bore on one side white scrolls with the ends folded about
+coats of arms, on each of which was written in ill-formed capital
+letters, the story of the event; victorious encounters with the galleys
+of the Grand Turk or with privates from Pisa, Genoa and Vizcaya; wars in
+Sardinia, assaults on Bujia and on Tedeliz, and in every one of these
+enterprises a Febrer was leading the combatants or distinguishing
+himself for his heroism, the knight commander Don Priamo towering above
+them all, he who had been both the glory and the shame of the house.
+
+Alternating with these warlike scenes were the family portraits. On the
+topmost row, crowding a line of old canvases depicting evangelists and
+martyrs in semblance of a frieze, were the most ancient Febrers,
+venerable merchants of Majorca, painted some centuries after their
+death, grave men with Jewish noses and piercing eyes, with jewels on
+their breasts, and wearing tall Oriental caps. Next came the men of
+arms, the sword-bearing navigators with short cropped hair and profiles
+like birds of prey, all clad in dark steel armor, and some displaying
+the white Maltese cross. From portrait to portrait the countenances grew
+more refined, but without losing the prominent forehead and the
+imperious family nose. The wide, soft collar of the homespun shirt
+became transformed into starched folds of plaited ruffs; the cuirasses
+softened into jackets of velvet or silk; the stiff broad beards in
+imperial style changed to sharp goatees and to pointed mustaches, which,
+with the soft locks falling over the temples, served as a frame for the
+face. Among the rude men of war and the elegant caballeros, a few
+ecclesiastics with mustaches and small beards, wearing tasseled clerical
+hats, stood out conspicuously. Some were religious dignitaries of Malta,
+to judge by the white insignia adorning their breasts; others, venerable
+inquisitors of Majorca, according to the inscription which extolled
+their zeal for the spread of the faith. After all these dark gentlemen
+of imposing presence and metallic eyes, followed the procession of white
+wigs and of countenances rendered youthful by shaving; of coats
+resplendent with silk and gold, showy with sashes and decorations of
+honor. They were perpetual magistrates of the city of Palma; marquises
+whose marquisate the family had lost through matrimonial complications,
+their titles becoming merged with others pertaining to the nobility of
+the Peninsula; governors, captain generals, and viceroys of American and
+Oceanian countries, whose names evoked visions of fantastic riches;
+enthusiastic "botiflers," partisans of the Bourbons from the start, who
+had been compelled to flee from Majorca, that final support of the house
+of Austria, and they boasted as a supreme title of nobility the nickname
+of butifarras, which had been given them by the hostile populace.
+Closing the glorious procession, hanging almost on a level with the
+furniture of the room, were the last Febrers of the early nineteenth
+century, officers of the Armada, with short whiskers, curls over their
+foreheads, high collars with anchors embroidered in gold, and black
+stocks, men who had fought off Cape Saint Vincent and Trafalgar; and
+after them Jaime's great grandfather, an old man with large eyes and
+disdainful mouth, who, when Ferdinand VII returned from his captivity in
+France, had sailed for Valencia to prostrate himself at his feet,
+beseeching, along with other great hidalgos, that he reestablish the
+ancient customs and crush the growing scourge of liberalism. He was a
+prolific patriarch, who had lavished his blood in various districts of
+the island in pursuit of peasant girls, without ever sacrificing his
+dignity; and as he offered his hand to be kissed by some one of his sons
+who lived in the house and bore his name, he would say with a solemn
+voice: "May God make you a good inquisitor!"
+
+Among these portraits of the illustrious Febrers were a number of women,
+grand senoras with great hoops filling the whole canvas, like those
+painted by Valasquez. One of them, whose slender bust emerged from her
+flowered bell-like skirts with pale and pointed face, a faded knot of
+ribbon in her short hair, was the notable woman of the family, she who
+had been called "La Greca" on account of her knowledge of Hellenic
+letters. Her uncle, Fray Espiridion Febrer, prior of Santo Domingo, a
+great luminary of his epoch, had been her teacher, and the "Greek woman"
+could write in their own language to correspondents in the Orient who
+still maintained a dwindling commerce with Majorca.
+
+Jaime's glance fell upon some canvases farther down (the distance
+representing the passing of a century) where hung the portrait of
+another famous woman of the family, a girl in a little white wig,
+dressed like a woman in the full skirt and great hoops of the ladies of
+the eighteenth century. She was standing beside a table, near a vase of
+flowers, holding in her bloodless right hand a rose as large as a
+tomato, looking straight before her with the little porcelain-like eyes
+of a doll. This woman had been styled "La Latina." In the pompous style
+of the epoch the lettering on the canvas told of her knowledge and
+wisdom, and lamented her death at the tender age of eleven years. The
+women were as dry shoots upon the vigorous trunk of the soldierly and
+exuberant Febrer stock. Scholarship quickly withered in this family of
+seamen and soldiers, like a plant which springs up by mistake in an
+adverse clime.
+
+Preoccupied with his thoughts of the night before and of the
+contemplated trip to Valldemosa, Jaime stood in the reception hall
+gazing at the pictures of his forefathers. How much glory, and how much
+dust! It had been twenty years, perhaps, since a merciful cloth had
+passed over the illustrious family to furbish it up a little. The more
+remote grandfathers and the famous battles were covered with cobwebs...
+and to think that the pawnbrokers had declined to acquire this museum of
+glories under the pretext that the paintings were poor! Jaime was
+surprised that it should be difficult to turn these relics over to
+wealthy people anxious to pretend an illustrious origin for themselves.
+
+He crossed the reception hall and entered the apartments in the opposite
+wing. They were rooms with lower ceilings; above them was a second story
+occupied in other times by Febrer's grandfather; relatively modern
+rooms, with old furniture in the style of the Empire, and on the walls
+illuminated prints of the romantic period, representing the misfortunes
+of Atala, the love affairs of Matilde, and the achievements of Hernan
+Cortez. Upon the swelling dressing tables were polychrome saints and
+ivory crucifixes, together with dusty artificial flowers beneath
+crystal bells. A collection of cross-bows, arrows, and knives recalled a
+Febrer, captain of a corvette belonging to the king, who made a voyage
+around the world near the close of the eighteenth century. Purplish
+bivalves and enormous nacre-lined conch shells lay upon the tables.
+
+Following a corridor on the way to the kitchen he left on one side the
+chapel which had been closed for many years, and on the other the door
+of the archives, a huge apartment with windows opening upon the garden,
+where Jaime on his return from trips had spent many afternoons poring
+over bundles of papers kept behind the metal grating of many series of
+ancient bookshelves.
+
+He peeped into the kitchen, an immense place where anciently were
+prepared the sumptuous banquets of the Febrers, who fed a swarm of
+parasites, and lavished generosity on all their friends who visited the
+island. Antonia looked dwarfed in this high-ceiled, spacious room,
+standing near a great fireplace which would hold an enormous pile of
+wood and was capable of roasting several animals at once. The ranks of
+ovens might serve for an entire community. The chill cleanliness of this
+adjunct of the palace showed lack of use. On the walls great iron hooks
+called attention to the absence of the copper vessels which used to be
+the splendrous glory of this conventional kitchen. The old servant did
+her cooking at a small hearth beside the trough where she kneaded her
+bread.
+
+Jaime called to Antonia, to announce his presence and entered the
+adjoining room, the small dining room which had been utilized by the
+last of the Febrers, who, being in reduced circumstances, had abandoned
+the great hall where the old-time banquets used to take place.
+
+Here, also, the presence of poverty was noticeable. The long table was
+covered with a cracked oil-cloth of blemished whiteness. The sideboards
+were almost empty. The ancient china, when it became broken, had been
+replaced by coarse platters and jars. Two open windows at the lower end
+of the room framed bits of sea, of intense and restless blue,
+palpitating beneath the fire of the sun. Near them swayed rhythmically
+the branches of palm trees. Out at sea the white wings of a schooner
+approaching Palma, slowly, like a wearied gull, broke the horizon line.
+
+Mammy Antonia came in, setting upon the table a steaming bowl of coffee
+and milk and a great slice of buttered bread. Jaime attacked the
+breakfast with avidity, but as he bit into the bread he made a gesture
+of displeasure. Antonia assented with a nod of her head, breaking into
+speech in her Majorcan dialect.
+
+"It is hard, isn't it? No doubt the bread does not compare with the
+tender little rolls the senor eats at the casino, but it is not my
+fault. I wanted to make bread yesterday, but I was out of flour, and I
+was expecting that the 'payes' of Son Febrer would come and bring his
+tribute. Ungrateful and forgetful people!"
+
+The old servant persisted in her scorn of the peasant farmer of Son
+Febrer, the piece of land which constituted the remaining fortune of the
+house. The rustic owed all he had to the benevolence of the Febrer
+family, and now in these hard times he forgot his kind masters.
+
+Jaime continued chewing, his thought centered upon Son Febrer. That was
+not his either, although he posed as owner. The farm, situated in the
+middle of the island, the choicest property inherited from his parents,
+that which bore the family name, he had heavily mortgaged, and he was
+about to lose it. The rent, paltry and mean, according to traditional
+custom, enabled him to pay off only a part of the interest on his loans;
+the rest of the interest due served to swell the amount of the debt.
+There were still the tributes, the payments in specie which the payes
+had to make to him, according to ancient usage, and with these he and
+Mammy Antonia had managed to exist, almost lost in the immensity of the
+house which had been built to shelter a tribe. At Christmas and at
+Easter he always received a brace of lambs accompanied by a dozen fowl;
+in the autumn two well-fattened pigs ready to kill, and every month eggs
+and a certain amount of flour, as well as fruits in their season. With
+these contributions, partly consumed in the house, and in part sold by
+the servant, Jaime and Mammy Antonia managed to live in the solitude of
+the palace, isolated from public gaze, like castaways. The offerings in
+money were continually becoming more belated. The payes, with that
+rustic egoism which shuns misfortune, became indolent in fulfilling his
+obligations. He knew that the nominal possessor of the estate was not
+the real owner of Son Febrer, and frequently, on arriving at the city
+with his gifts, he changed his route and left them at the houses of his
+creditors, awe-inspiring personages whom he desired to propitiate.
+
+Jaime glanced sadly at the servant who remained standing before him. She
+was an old payesa who still kept to the ancient style of dress peculiar
+to her people--a dark doublet with two rows of buttons on the sleeves, a
+light, full skirt, and the rebocillo covering her head, the white veil
+caught at the neck and at the bust, below which hung the heavy braid,
+which was false and very black, tied with long velvet bows.
+
+"Poverty, Mammy Antonia," said the master in the same dialect.
+"Everybody shuns the poor, and some fine day if that rascal does not
+bring us what he owes us, we shall have to fall to and eat each other
+like shipwrecked mariners on a desert island."
+
+The old woman smiled; the master was always merry. In this he was just
+like his grandfather, Don Horacio, ever solemn, with a face which
+frightened one, and yet always saying such jolly things!
+
+"This will have to stop," continued Jaime, paying no heed to the
+servant's levity. "This must stop this very day. I have made up my mind.
+Let me tell you, Antonia, before the news gets abroad: I'm going to be
+married."
+
+The servant clasped her hands in an attitude of devotion to express her
+astonishment, and turned her eyes toward the ceiling. "Santisimo Cristo
+de la sangre!" It was high time!... He should have done it long ago, and
+then the house would have been in a very different condition. Her
+curiosity was stirred, and she asked with the eagerness of a rustic:
+
+"Is she rich?"
+
+The master's affirmative gesture did not surprise her. Of course she
+must be rich. Only a woman who brought a great fortune with her could
+aspire to unite with the last of the Febrers, who had been the most
+noted men of the island, and perhaps of the whole world. Poor Antonia
+thought of her kitchen, instantly furnishing it in her imagination with
+copper vessels gleaming like gold, dreaming of its hearths all ablaze,
+the room filled with girls with rolled up sleeves, their rebocillos
+thrown back, their braids floating behind, and she in the center, seated
+in a great chair, giving orders and breathing in the savory odors from
+the casseroles.
+
+"She must be young!" declared the old woman, trying to worm more news
+out of her master.
+
+"Yes, much younger than I; too young; about twenty-two. I could almost
+be her father."
+
+Antonia made a gesture of protest. Don Jaime was the finest man on the
+island. She said so, she who had worshipped him ever since she led him
+by the hand, in his short trousers, walking among the pines near the
+castle of Bellver. He was one of the family--of that family of arrogant
+grand seigniors, and no more could be said.
+
+"And is she of good family?" she questioned in an effort to force her
+master's reticence. "Of a family of caballeros; undoubtedly the very
+best in the island--but no--from Madrid, perhaps. Some sweetheart you
+found when you lived there."
+
+Jaime hesitated an instant, turned pale, and then said with rude energy
+to conceal his perturbation:
+
+"No, Antonia--she's a--Chueta."
+
+Antonia started to clasp her hands, as she had done a few moments
+before, invoking again the blood of Christ, so venerated in Palma, but
+suddenly the wrinkles of her brown face broadened, and she burst out
+laughing. What a jolly master! Just like his grandfather; he used to say
+the most stupendous and incredible things so seriously that he deceived
+everybody. "And I, poor fool, was ready to believe your nonsense!
+Perhaps it was also a joke that you were going to get married!"
+
+"No, Antonia, I am going to marry a Chueta. I am going to marry the
+daughter of Benito Valls. That is why I am going to Valldemosa."
+
+The stifled voice in which Jaime spoke, his lowered eyes, the timid
+accent with which he murmured these words, removed all doubt. The old
+servant stood open-mouthed, her arms fallen, without strength to raise
+either her hands or her eyes.
+
+"Senor!... Senor!... Senor!"
+
+She could say no more. She felt as if a thunderbolt had crashed upon the
+house, shaking it to its foundations; as if a dark cloud had swept
+before the sun obscuring the light; as if the sea had become a leaden
+mass dashing against the castle wall. Then she saw that everything
+remained as usual, that she alone had been stirred by this stupendous
+news, so startling as to change the order of all existence.
+
+"Senor!... Senor!... Senor! A Chueta! An apostate Jewess!"
+
+She grasped the empty cup and the remnants of the bread, and ran to take
+refuge in the kitchen. After hearing such horrors in this house she felt
+afraid. She imagined that someone must be stalking through the venerable
+halls at the other end of the palace; someone--she could not explain to
+herself who it might be--someone who had been aroused from the sleep of
+centuries! This palace undoubtedly possessed a soul. When the old woman
+was alone in it the furniture creaked as if people were moving about and
+conversing; the tapestries swayed as if stirred by invisible faces, a
+gilded harp which had belonged to Don Jaime's grandmother vibrated in
+its corner, yet she never felt terror, because the Febrers had been good
+people, simple and kind to their servants; but now, after hearing such
+things----! She thought uneasily of the portraits hanging on the walls
+of the reception hall. How severe those senores would look if the words
+of their descendant should reach their ears! How fiercely their eyes
+would flame!
+
+Mammy Antonia finally grew calm and drank the coffee left by her master.
+She had laid fear aside, but she felt profound sorrow over the fate of
+Don Jaime, as if he were in peril of death. To bring the house of the
+Febrers to this! Could God tolerate such things? Then scorn for her
+master momentarily overcame her old-time affection. After all he was
+nothing but a wild fellow, heedless of religion, and destitute of good
+habits, who had squandered what had been left of the fortune of his
+house. What would his illustrious relatives have to say? How ashamed his
+aunt Juana would be--that noble lady, the most pious and aristocratic
+woman in the island, called by some in jest and by others in an excess
+of veneration, la Papisa--the Pope-ess!
+
+"Good-bye, Mammy. I'll be back about sunset."
+
+The old woman grunted a farewell to Jaime, who peeped into the kitchen
+before leaving. Then, finding herself alone, she raised her clasped
+hands invoking the aid of the Sangre de Cristo, of the Virgin of Lluch,
+patron saint of the island, and of the powerful San Vicente Ferrer, who
+had wrought so many miracles when he ministered in Majorca--a final and
+prodigious saint, who might avert the monstrosity her master
+contemplated! Let a rock from the mountains fall and forever close the
+way to Valldemosa; let the carriage upset, and let Don Jaime be carried
+home on a stretcher by four men--anything rather than that disgrace!
+
+Febrer crossed the reception hall, opened the door to the stairway, and
+began to descend the worn steps. His forefathers, like all the nobles of
+the island, had builded on a grand scale. The stairway and the zaguan
+occupied a third of the lower story. A kind of loggia in Italian style,
+with five arches sustained by slender columns, extended to the foot of
+the stairway, the doors of which gave access to the two upper wings of
+the building opening at either end. Above the center of the stairway,
+facing the street door, were the Febrer arms cut in the stone, and a
+great lantern of wrought iron.
+
+On his way down Jaime's cane struck against the sandstone steps, or
+touched the great glazed amphorae decorating the landings which responded
+to the blow with the sonorous ring of a bell. The iron balustrade,
+oxidized by time and crumbling into scales of rust almost shook from its
+sockets with the jar of his footsteps.
+
+As he reached the zaguan Febrer stood still. The extreme resolution
+which he had adopted, and which would forever cast its influence on the
+destiny of his name, caused him to look curiously at the very places
+which he had so often passed with indifference.
+
+In no other part of the building was the old-time prosperity so evident
+as here. The zaguan, enormous as a plaza, could admit a dozen carriages
+and an entire squadron of horsemen. Twelve columns, somewhat bulging, of
+the nut-brown marble of the island, sustained the arches of cut
+undressed stone over which extended the roof of black rafters. The
+paving was of cobbles between which grew dank moss. A vault-like chill
+pervaded this gigantic and solitary ruin. A cat slunk through the
+zaguan, making its exit through a hole in a worm-eaten door of the old
+stables, disappearing into the deserted cellars which had held the
+harvests of former days. On one side was a well dating from the epoch
+when the palace was constructed, a hole sunk through rock, with a
+time-worn stone curb and a wrought-iron spout. Ivy was growing in fresh
+clusters between the crevices of the polished rock. Often as a child
+Jaime had peered over the curb at his reflection in the luminous round
+pupil of the sleeping waters.
+
+The street was deserted. Down at its end, near the walls of the Febrer
+garden, was the city rampart, pierced by a broad gateway, with wooden
+bars in the arch like the teeth in the mouth of an enormous fish.
+Through this the waters of the bay trembled green and luminous with
+reflections of gold.
+
+Jaime walked a short distance over the blue stones of the street which
+was destitute of sidewalks, and then turned to contemplate his house. It
+was but a small remnant of the past. The ancient palace of the Febrers
+occupied a whole square, but it had dwindled with the passing of the
+centuries and with the exigencies of the family. Now a part of it had
+become a residence for nuns, and other parts had been acquired by
+certain rich people who disfigured with modern balconies the original
+unity of the design, which was still suggested by the regular line of
+eaves and tile-covered roofs. The Febrers themselves who were living in
+that portion of the great house which looked upon the garden and the
+sea, had been compelled to let the lower stories to warehousemen and
+small shopkeepers, in order to augment their rents. Near the lordly
+portal, inside the glass windows, some girls who greeted Don Jaime with
+a respectful smile were busy ironing linen. He stood motionless
+contemplating the ancient house. How beautiful it was still in spite of
+its amputations and its age!
+
+The foundation wall, perforated and worn by people and carriages, was
+cleft by several windows with grilles on a level with the ground. The
+lower story of the palace was worn, lacerated, and dusty, like feet
+which had been plodding for centuries.
+
+As it rose above the mezzanine, a story with an independent entrance
+which had been rented to a druggist, the lordly splendor of the facade
+developed. Three rows of windows on a level with the arch of the portal,
+divided by double columns, had frames of black marble delicately carved.
+Stone thistles climbed over the columns which sustained the cornices,
+while above them were three great medallions--that in the center being
+the bust of the Emperor with the inscription DOMINUS CAROLUS IMPERATOR,
+1541, in memory of his passing through Majorca on the unfortunate
+expedition against Algiers; those on either side bore the Febrer arms
+held by fish with bearded heads of men. Above the jambs and cornices of
+the great windows of the first story were wreaths formed of anchors and
+dolphins, testifying to the glories of a family of navigators. On their
+finials were enormous shells. Along the upper portion of the facade was
+a compact row of small windows with Gothic decorations, some plastered
+over, others open to admit light to the garrets, and above them the
+monumental eaves, such as are found only in Majorcan palaces, their
+masses of carved timbers blackened by time and supported by sturdy
+gargoyles projecting as far as the middle of the street.
+
+Over the entire facade extended cleats of worm-eaten wood with nails and
+bands of rusted iron. They were the remains of the grand illuminations
+with which the household had commemorated certain feasts in its times of
+splendor.
+
+Jaime seemed satisfied with this examination. The palace of his
+ancestors was still beautiful despite the broken panes in the windows,
+the dust and cobwebs gathered in the crevices, the cracks which
+centuries had opened in its plaster. When he should marry, and old
+Valls' fortune should pass into his hands, everyone would be astounded
+at the magnificent resurrection of the Febrers. And yet, would some
+people be scandalized at his decision, and did he himself not feel
+certain scruples? Courage, forward!
+
+He turned in the direction of El Borne, a broad avenue which is the
+center of Palma, a stream bed which in ancient times divided the city
+into two villages and into two hostile factions--Can Amunt and Can
+Avall. There he would find a carriage to take him to Valldemosa.
+
+As he entered the Paseo del Borne his attention was attracted by a group
+of people standing in the shade of the dense-crowned trees staring at a
+peasant family which had stopped before the display windows of a shop.
+Febrer recognized their dress, different from that worn by the peasants
+on the island. They were Ivizans. Ah, Iviza! The name of this island
+recalled the memory of a year he had spent there long ago in his youth.
+Seeing these people who caused the Majorcans to grin as if they were
+foreigners, Jaime smiled also, looking with interest at their dress and
+figures.
+
+They were, undoubtedly, father, son and daughter. The elder rustic wore
+white hempen sandals, above which hung the broad bell of a pair of blue
+trousers. His jacket-blouse was caught across his breast by a clasp,
+affording glimpses of his shirt and belt. A dark mantle hung over his
+shoulders like a woman's shawl, and to complete this feminine garb,
+which contrasted strongly with his hard, brown, Moorish features, he
+wore a handkerchief knotted across his forehead beneath his hat, with
+the ends hanging down behind. The boy, who was about fourteen, was
+dressed like the father, with the same style of trousers, narrow in
+the leg and bell-shaped over the foot, but without the kerchief and
+mantle. A pink ribbon hung down his breast like a cravat, a spray
+of flowers peeped from behind one of his ears, and his hat with a
+flower-embroidered band, thrust back on his head, allowed a wave of
+curls to fall around his face, brown, spare and mischievous, animated by
+African eyes of intense lustrous black.
+
+The girl it was who attracted the greatest attention with her
+accordeon-plaited green skirt beneath which the presence of other skirts
+could be divined, forming an inflated globe of several layers which
+seemed to make still smaller her fine and graceful feet encased in white
+sandals. The prominent curves of her breast were concealed beneath a
+small yellow jacket with red flowers. It had velvet sleeves of a
+different color decorated with a double row of filigree buttons, the
+work of the Chueta silversmiths. A triple shining gold chain, terminated
+by a cross, hung over her breast, but so enormous were the links, that,
+had they not been hollow, they must have borne her down by their weight.
+Her black and glossy hair was parted over her forehead and concealed
+beneath a white kerchief tied under her chin, appearing again behind in
+long heavy braids tied with multi-colored ribbons falling to the hem of
+her skirt.
+
+The girl, with her basket over her arm, stood looking at the strange
+sights, admiring the tall houses and the terraces of the cafes. She was
+pink and white, without the hard coppery roughness of the country women.
+Her features had the delicacy of an aristocratic and well cared for nun,
+the pale texture of milk and roses, lightened by the luminous reflection
+of her teeth and the timid glow of her eyes, under a kerchief resembling
+a monastic head-dress.
+
+Impelled by curiosity Jaime approached the father and son whose backs
+were turned to the girl and who were absorbed in contemplation of the
+show window. It was a gun store. The two Ivizans were examining the
+weapons exposed with ardent eyes and gestures of adoration, as if
+worshipping miraculous idols. The boy pressed his eager, Moorish face
+against the glass as if he would thrust it through the pane.
+
+"Fluxas--pa're, fluxas!" he cried with the excitement of one who meets
+an unexpected friend, calling his father's attention to the display of
+huge Lefaucheux pistols.
+
+The admiration of the two was concentrated upon the unfamiliar weapons,
+which seemed to them marvelous works of art--the guns with invisible
+locks, repeating rifles, pistols with magazines which could hurl shot
+after shot. What wonderful things men invent! What treasures the rich
+enjoy! These lifeless weapons seemed to them animate creatures with
+malignant souls and limitless power. Doubtless such as these could kill
+automatically, without giving their owner the trouble of taking aim!
+
+The image of Febrer, reflected in the glass, caused the father to turn
+suddenly.
+
+"Don Jaime! Ah, Don Jaime!"
+
+Such was his astonishment and surprise, and so great his joy, that,
+grasping Febrer's hands, he almost knelt before him, while he spoke in a
+tremulous voice. He had been killing time along the Paseo del Borne so
+as to reach Don Jaime's house about the time he should arise. Of course
+he knew that gentlemen always retire late! What a joy to see him! Here
+were his children--let them take a good look at the Senor! This was Don
+Jaime; this was the master! He had not seen him for ten years, but he
+would have recognized him among a thousand.
+
+Febrer, disconcerted by the peasant and by the deferential curiosity of
+the two children who stood planted before him, could not recall his
+name. The worthy fellow guessed this slip of memory from Jaime's
+hesitant glance. Truly did he not recognize him? Pep Arabi, from Iviza!
+Even this did not tell much, because on that little island there were
+but six or seven surnames, and Arabi was borne by a fourth part of the
+inhabitants. He would explain more clearly--Pep of Can Mallorqui.
+
+Febrer smiled. Ah, Can Mallorqui! A poor predio in Iviza, a farm where
+he had passed a year when he was a boy, his sole inheritance from his
+mother. Can Mallorqui had not belonged to him for twelve years. He had
+sold it to Pep, whose fathers and grandfathers had cultivated it. That
+was during the time when he still had money; but of what use was that
+land on a separate island to which he would never return? So with the
+geniality of a benevolent gran senor he had sold it to Pep at a low
+figure, valuing it in accord with the traditional rents; and conceding
+easy terms for payment, sums which, when hard times pressed upon him,
+had often come as an unexpected joy. Years had passed since Pep had
+satisfied the debt, and yet the good souls continued calling him master,
+and as they saw him now they experienced the sensation of one who is in
+the presence of a superior being.
+
+Pep Arabi introduced his family. The girl was the elder, and was called
+Margalida; quite a little woman, although but seventeen! The boy, who
+was almost a man, was thirteen. He wished to be a farmer like his father
+and grandfathers, but Pep had determined that the boy should enter the
+Seminary at Iviza since he was clever at his letters. His lands he would
+hold for some good hard-working youth who might marry Margalida. Many
+young men of the island were already chasing after her, and as soon as
+they returned the season for the festeigs, the traditional courtship,
+would begin, so that she could choose a husband. Pepet was destined for
+a higher calling; he would become a priest and after singing his first
+mass he would join a regiment or embark for America, as had done many
+other Ivizans who made much money and sent it home to their fathers with
+which to buy lands on the island. Ah, Don Jaime, and how time passes!
+He had seen the senor, still a mere child, when he spent that summer
+with his mother at Can Mallorqui. Pep had taught him to use the gun, and
+to shoot his first birds. "Does your lordship remember?" It was about
+the time that Pep married, while his parents were still alive. Since
+then they had only met once in Palma, when they arranged the sale of the
+property (a great favor which he would never forget) and now, when he
+presented himself again, he was almost an old man, with children as tall
+as himself.
+
+As he talked of his journey the rustic displayed his strong teeth in
+mischievous smiles. It was a wild adventure of which his friends there
+in Iviza would talk a long time! He had always been of a roving and
+venturesome disposition--a vicious habit formed when he was a soldier.
+The master of a small trading vessel, a great friend of his, had picked
+up a cargo for Majorca, and had invited him just for a joke to come
+along. But it was risky to joke with him. As soon as the idea was
+suggested he accepted. The youngsters had never been in Majorca; in the
+entire parish of San Jose, in which he lived, there were not a dozen
+persons who had seen the capital. Many of them had visited America; one
+had been to Australia; some neighbor women talked of their trips to
+Algeria with smugglers in their feluccas; but no one ever came to
+Majorca, and with good reason! "They don't like us here, Don Jaime; they
+stare at us as if we were strange animals; they think we are savages, as
+if we are not all the children of God." And here he and his children had
+been subjected to the gaze of the curious throughout the whole morning
+just as if they were Moors. Ten hours of sailing on a magnificent sea!
+The girl had a basket of lunch for the three of them! They would return
+tomorrow at break of day, but before sailing he wished to speak to the
+master on a matter of business.
+
+Jaime made a gesture of surprise, and listened more attentively. Pep
+expressed himself with a certain timidity, stumbling over his words. The
+almond trees were the greatest source of wealth on Can Mallorqui. Last
+year the crop had been good, and this year it did not look unpromising.
+It was being sold to the padrones, who were bringing it to Palma and
+Barcelona. He had planted nearly all his fields to almonds, and now he
+was thinking of clearing and cleaning off the stones from certain lands
+belonging to the senor, and of raising wheat on them--no more than
+enough for the use of his own family.
+
+Febrer did not conceal his surprise. What lands did he mean? Did he
+really have anything left in Iviza? Pep smiled. They were not lands
+exactly; it was a stony hill, a rocky promontory overhanging the sea,
+but he might cultivate it by terracing the steep slopes. On its crest
+was the Pirate's Tower--did not the senor remember? It was a
+fortification dating from the time of the corsairs. Don Jaime had
+scrambled up to it many times when a child, shouting like a young
+warrior, flourishing a cudgel of juniper wood, giving orders for the
+assault upon an imaginary army.
+
+The senor, who had hoped for an instant in the discovery of a forgotten
+estate, the last one of which he might be the real owner, smiled sadly.
+Ah! the Pirate's Tower! He remembered it. A bold limestone cliff, in the
+crevices of which sprung up bushes and shrubs, the refuge and sustenance
+of rabbits. The old stone fortress was a ruin, now slowly crumbling
+under the stress of time and wind. The stones were falling from their
+places, the corners of the merlons were wearing away. When Can Mallorqui
+was sold the tower had not been included in the contract, possibly
+through oversight because it seemed worthless. Pep could do as he liked
+with it, Don Jaime assured him. Probably he would never return to the
+place, forgotten since the days of his youth.
+
+When the peasant spoke of future remuneration, Don Jaime silenced him
+with the gesture of a gran senor. Then he glanced at the girl. She was
+very pretty; she looked like a senorita in disguise; the young fellows
+on the island must be wild over her. The father smiled, proud, yet
+disturbed by this praise. "Come, girl, what should you say to the
+master?" He spoke to her as if she were a child, and she, with lowered
+eyes, her face flushed, fingering a corner of her apron, stammered a few
+words in the Ivizan dialect: "No, I am not pretty. I am at your
+lordship's service."
+
+Febrer brought the interview to a close, telling Pep and his children to
+go to his house. The peasant knew Antonia, and the old woman would be
+very glad to see him. They must eat with her whatever--whatever there
+was to be had. He would see them again about sunset when he returned
+from Valldemosa. "Good-bye, Pep! Good-bye, children!"
+
+He made a signal with his cane to a driver seated on the box of a
+Majorcan carriage, a light vehicle mounted upon four slender wheels,
+with a cheerful canopy of white canvas, and drove toward Valldemosa and
+the wealthy Jewess whose dowry was to recoup his fortune.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+BARTERING THE ANCESTRAL NAME
+
+
+Having reached the outskirts of Palma and the open vernal fields, Jaime
+Febrer repented of his present way of existence. He had not been beyond
+the confines of Palma for a year, and he had been spending his
+afternoons in the cafes on the Paseo del Borne and his nights in the
+gambling hall of the Casino.
+
+It had never occurred to him to go forth where he might see the fields
+clad in tender green, the waters murmuring in the acequias; the soft
+blue sky dotted with white, fleecy islets, the dark green hills where
+stood the windmills swinging their arms upon the summits, the abrupt
+sierras forming a rose-colored background to a landscape which
+everywhere smiled and whispered sweetly, as in the days when, it
+astounded the ancient navigators, causing them to name Majorca "the
+Fortunate Isle"! When, thanks to his marriage, he should acquire a
+fortune, and could redeem the fine estate of Son Febrer, he would spend
+a part of the year there, as his forefathers had done, leading the
+healthy, rural life of a gran senor, munificent and honored.
+
+The horses were going at topmost speed and the carriage whirled past a
+string of peasants trudging along the road returning from the city.
+There were slender brown women wearing over their braids and white
+rebocillos broad straw hats with streamers and sprays of wild flowers;
+men dressed in striped drill, the so-called Majorcan cloth, their hats
+stuck on the backs of their heads like black or gray nimbuses around
+their shaven faces.
+
+Febrer recalled the characteristics of the road although he had not
+passed over it for many years. He was like a stranger returning to the
+island after a dimly remembered visit. Farther on the road forked; one
+branch leading to Valldemosa and the other to Soller... Ah! Soller...
+Scenes of his boyhood rushed through his memory! Every year, in a
+carriage like this, the Febrer family used to journey to Soller where
+they owned an old structure with a spacious zaguan, the House of the
+Moon, so named on account of a hemisphere of stone having eyes and nose,
+representing the luminary of night which adorned the upper part of the
+portalon.
+
+They habitually went early in May. When the carriage rolled along a
+narrow pass high up in the sierra, the little Jaime would shout with joy
+as he beheld, lying at his feet, the valley of Soller, the Garden of
+Hesperrides of the island. The mountains, dark with their pine trees,
+and dotted with little white houses, lifted their crests bound about in
+turbans of vapor. Below, surrounding the village and stretching down the
+valley as far as the sea, were orange orchards. Spring burst over the
+happy land with an explosion of color and perfume. Wild flowers grew
+among the rocks; branches of the trees were decked in waving green; poor
+habitations of the peasants concealed ruinous poverty beneath canopies
+of climbing roses. Rustic families from towns far and near gathered at
+the fiesta of Soller: the women in white rebocillos, heavy mantillas,
+and with gold buttons on their sleeves; the men in gay waistcoats,
+homespun woolen cloaks, and hats with colored bands. Concertinas
+whined, calling to the dance; glasses of native sweet wine and of wine
+from Banalbufar passed from hand to hand. It was joy and peace after a
+thousand years of piracy and of war against the infidel peoples of the
+Mediterranean; the joyful commemoration of the victory won by the
+peasants of Soller over a fleet of Turkish corsairs in the sixteenth
+century.
+
+In the port, the fishermen, masquerading as Mussulmans, or as Christian
+warriors, held a sham naval battle on their little boats, firing off
+blunderbusses and flourishing swords, or pursuing one another up and
+down the roads along the shore. In the church a festival was celebrated
+to comemmorate the miraculous victory, and Jaime, seated in a place of
+honor beside his mother, thrilled with emotion listening to the priest
+just as he did on reading an interesting tale in his uncle's library in
+the second story of the great house in Palma.
+
+The inhabitants of Soller had risen in arms against Alaro and Bunola on
+learning from a boat which had come over from Iviza that a fleet of
+twenty-two Turkish galiots with many galleys was heading for their
+coast, threatening this the richest town of the island. Seventeen
+hundred Turks and Africans, formidable pirates, attracted by the riches
+of the town, and drawn on by the desire to attack a convent of nuns,
+where beautiful young women of noble families lived retired from the
+world, had landed upon the beach. Divided into two columns, one marched
+against the Christians who had gone out to resist them, while the other,
+making a detour, entered the town, capturing youths and maidens,
+pillaging churches and killing the priests. The Christians realized the
+extremity of the situation. Before them were a thousand advancing Turks;
+behind them the village in the hands of looters, their families
+subjected to violence and outrage calling to them in despair. They
+hesitated only a moment. A sergeant from Soller, a valorous veteran of
+the army of Charles V in the wars of Germany and against the Grand Turk,
+urged them on to attack the enemy. They fell upon their knees and
+invoked the Apostle St. James, and then attacked with their fire-locks,
+arquebuses, lances and axes, devoutly expecting a miracle. The Turks
+faltered; then turned their backs. Their terrible chieftain, Suffarais,
+Captain General of the sea, an ancient Turk of great obesity, famous for
+his courage and daring, exhorted them in vain. At the head of his
+body-guard, a squadron of negroes, he attacked, scimitar in hand,
+felling a circle of corpses around him, but at last a native of Soller
+pierced his breast with a lance, and as he fell the invaders fled, even
+forsaking their standard. Then a new enemy barred their way. While
+trying to reach the coast and take refuge aboard their ships, a band of
+robbers that had witnessed the battle from their caves in the crags,
+seeing the Turks in retreat, came out to meet them, firing their
+flintlocks and brandishing their daggers. They had with them a troop of
+mastiffs, ferocious companions of their infamous career, and these
+animals, according to the chroniclers of the epoch, "gave evidence of
+the excellence of the Majorcan breed." The troops under the command of
+the veteran sergeant turned back to the desolated village from which the
+looters fled as best they could in the direction of the sea, or fell
+decapitated in the streets.
+
+The priest became exalted as he related the victorious defense,
+attributing the greater part of the success to the Queen of Heaven and
+to the Apostle warrior St. James. Then he eulogized Captain Angelats,
+the hero of the day, the Cid of Soller, and also the valiant donas of
+Can Tamany, two women on an estate near the village who had been
+surprised by three Turks greedy to satiate their carnal appetites after
+long abstinence on the solitudes of the sea. The valiant donas, arrogant
+and strong, as are all good peasants, neither cried out nor fled at
+sight of these three pirates, enemies both of God and of the saints.
+With the bar used for fastening the door they killed one of them and
+then locked themselves up in the house. Hurling the corpse out of a
+window upon the assailants, they broke the head of another, and they
+drove the third off with stones, like true descendants of the Majorcan
+slingers. Ah, the brave donas, the forceful women of Can Tamany! The
+good people worshipped them as sainted heroines of the interminable war
+against the infidel, and they laughed tenderly over the deeds of these
+Joans of Arc, thinking with pride how perilous was the Mussulmans' task
+of supplying their harems with new flesh.
+
+Then the preacher, following traditional custom, brought his harangue to
+a close by naming the families who had taken part in the battle; a list
+of a hundred, to which the rural audience listened attentively, each
+nodding his head with satisfaction when the name of one of his
+forefathers was pronounced. This lengthy enumeration seemed short to
+many, who made a gesture of protest when the preacher ceased. "There
+were others whom he did not mention," murmured the peasants whose names
+had not been read. All desired to be descendants of the warriors of
+Captain Angelats.
+
+When the fiestas ended and Soller recovered its tranquillity, young
+Jaime used to spend his days racing through the orange orchards with
+Antonia, old Mammy Antonia of the present, who was then a fresh young
+woman with white teeth, full bust, and vigorous tread, widowed a few
+months after her marriage and followed by the ardent glances of all the
+peasantry. Together they went to the port, a peaceful, solitary basin,
+its entrance half concealed by a curving rocky arm of the sea. Only now
+and then the masts of some sailing vessel coming to take on a load of
+oranges for Marseilles, appeared before this blue town with its
+surrounding waters. Flocks of old gulls, enormous as hens, fluttered
+with evolutions like a contredanse upon its glossy surface. The
+fishermen's boats came in at sunset, and beneath the sheds along the
+shore enormous fishes were left hanging, their tails sweeping the
+ground, bleeding like oxen; together with rays and octopuses from which
+dripped a white gelatinous slime like drops of palpitating crystal.
+
+Jaime loved this quiet port and its brooding solitude with religious
+veneration. Then he recalled the miraculous stories with which his
+mother used to lull him to sleep--the great miracle wrought upon these
+waters by a servant of God to flout the hardened sinners. Saint Raymond
+of Penafort, a virtuous and austere monk, became indignant with King
+Jaime of Majorca who was basely enamored of a certain lady, Dona
+Berenguela, and who remained deaf to holy counsels. The friar determined
+to abandon this recalcitrant, but the king sought to prevent his
+departure by laying an embargo upon all ships and vessels. Then the
+saint descended to the lonely port of Soller, spread his mantle upon the
+waves, stepped upon it, and sailed away to the coasts of Catalonia.
+Mammy Antonia had also told him of this miracle, but in Majorcan verse,
+in a primitive romance that breathed the simple confidence of centuries
+which clung trustfully to the marvelous. The saint, having embarked on
+his mantle, set up his staff for a mast and his hood for a sail; then a
+wind from heaven blew upon the strange vessel; in a few hours the
+servant of the Lord sailed from Majorca to Barcelona; the lookout at
+Montjuich announced with a flag the apparition of the prodigious craft,
+the bells of Seo rang, and the merchants rushed down to the sea-wall to
+welcome the sainted voyager.
+
+Little Febrer, his curiosity aroused by these marvels, was eager to hear
+more, and his companion called the old fishermen who showed him the rock
+where the saint had stood while invoking the aid of Almighty God before
+setting sail. An inland mountain which could be seen from the port had
+the form of a hooded friar. Along the coast, at an inaccessible point, a
+cliff seen only by fishermen resembled a monk kneeling at prayer. These
+prodigies had been formed by God, according to the simple souls, to
+perpetuate the memory of the famous miracle.
+
+Jaime still recalled the thrills of emotion with which he had listened
+to these tales. Ah, Soller! The epoch of holy innocence in which he had
+first opened his eyes upon life to the accompaniment of miraculous
+stories and commemorations of heroic struggles! The House of the Moon he
+had lost forever, and also the credulity and the innocence of youth.
+Only memories lingered. More than twenty years had rolled away since he
+had pressed foot on the paths of forgotten Soller; it now came back to
+his mind with all the smiling fancies of childhood.
+
+The carriage reached the fork of the road taking the route to
+Valldemosa, and all his memories seemed left behind, motionless by the
+roadside, growing hazy in the distance.
+
+The way to Valldemosa held no memory of the past. He had been over it
+only twice, after coming to manhood, having gone with friends to see
+the cells of the Cartuja--a once renowned Carthusian convent. He
+recalled the farmers' olive trees along the roadside, aged trees of
+strange, fantastic shapes which had served as inspiration for many
+artists, and he thrust his head through a window to look at them again.
+The ground was rising; here began the stony, unirrigated ground, the
+lowest of the foothills. The road wound steeply among the ancient
+groves. The first olive trees now passed before the carriage windows.
+
+Febrer had seen them, had often spoken of them, and yet he felt the
+sensation of something extraordinary, as if looking at them for the
+first time. They were black, with enormous, knotted, open trunks,
+swelling with great excrescences, and the foliage was sparse. These were
+olive trees which had stood for centuries, which had never been pruned,
+in which age robbed the sap from the branches to distend the trunk with
+the protuberances of a slow and painful circulation. The region looked
+like the deserted studio of a sculptor littered with thousands of
+shapeless bulks, with monsters scattered over the ground, upon a green
+carpet dotted with bluebells and marguerites.
+
+One of the trees resembled an enormous toad crouching ready to spring,
+holding a spray of leaves in its mouth; another was a great coiled boa
+with an olive crest upon his head. There were trunks open like ogives,
+through the orifices of which shone the blue sky; monstrous serpents
+coiled in groups like the spirals of a solomonic column; gigantic
+negroes, heads down and hands on the ground, the roots like fingers
+thrust deep into the soil, their feet in the air, grotesque stems with
+bunches of leaves springing from them. Some, vanquished by the
+centuries, were lying on the ground, sustained by forked branches, like
+old men trying to lift themselves with the aid of crutches.
+
+It seemed as if a tempest had swept these fields, overthrowing and
+twisting everything out of shape, and afterward turning them to stone to
+hold this work of desolation under a spell forever. Some trees standing
+erect, and having softer outlines, seemed to have feminine faces and
+figures. They were Byzantine maidens, with tiaras of dainty leaves and
+trailing vestments of wood. Others were ferocious idols with protruding
+eyes and long flowing beards; fetiches of gloomy, barbaric cults capable
+of checking primitive humanity in its progress, forcing it to its knees
+with emotion as if at a meeting with divinity. In the calm of this
+frenzied, but motionless distortion, in the solitude of these fields
+peopled by startling and eternal specters, birds were singing, wild
+flowers crept to the foot of the worm-eaten trunks, and ants came and
+went, an infinite rosary, burrowing in the ancient roots like
+indefatigable miners.
+
+Gustave Dore, according to report, had sketched his most fantastic
+conceptions in these olive orchards, steeped in the mysteries of
+centuries. Recollection of this artist recalled to Jaime's mind others
+more celebrated who had also passed along this road, and had lived and
+suffered in Valldemosa.
+
+Twice he had visited the Cartuja merely to see the places immortalized
+by the sad and unhealthy love of a pair of famous persons. His
+grandfather had often told him of "the Frenchwoman" of Valldemosa and
+her companion "the musician."
+
+One day the inhabitants of Majorca and the people of the Peninsula who
+had taken refuge on the island, fleeing from the horrors of civil war,
+saw a strange couple disembark, accompanied by a boy and girl. It was
+in 1838. When their luggage was landed the islanders were astounded by
+an enormous piano, an Erard instrument of which but few were to be seen
+in those days. The piano was held in the custom house while the tangle
+of certain administrative scruples was unraveled, and the travelers
+sought lodging at an inn, and later rented the estate of Son Vent, in
+the environs of Palma. The man seemed to be ill; he was younger than the
+woman, but wasted by suffering, pale, with the transparent pallor of the
+consecrated wafer, his limpid eyes glowing with fever, his narrow chest
+shaken by harsh and continuous coughing. A fine, silky beard shaded his
+cheeks; a black, shaggy head of hair like a lion's mane crowned his
+forehead and hung down behind in a cascade of curls. She was strong and
+vigorous and did all the work of the house like a good bourgeoise more
+willing than skilled in such labors. She played with her children like a
+girl, and her kindly, smiling face clouded only when she heard the cough
+of the "beloved invalid." An atmosphere of exotism, of irregular
+existence, of protest against conventional custom, seemed to surround
+this vagabond family. She dressed in fantastic gowns, and wore a silver
+dagger thrust in her hair, a romantic ornament which scandalized the
+pious Majorcan dames. Besides, she did not go to mass in the city, nor
+make calls; she did not go out of her house except to play with her
+children or to entice the poor consumptive out into the sunshine,
+leaning on her arm. The children were as extraordinary as the mother.
+The girl went dressed like a boy that she might run with greater
+freedom.
+
+Soon island curiosity ferreted out the names of these strangers of
+alarming peculiarities. She was a French woman, a writer of books;
+Aurore Dupin, the illustrious Baroness Dudevant separated from her
+husband, who made a world-wide reputation through her novels, which she
+signed with a masculine given name, and the surname of a political
+assassin, George Sand. The man was a Polish musician, of delicate
+constitution, who seemed to leave a portion of his existence in each one
+of his works, and who felt himself dying at twenty-nine years of age. He
+was called Frederic Francois Chopin. The children belonged to the
+novelist, who was about thirty-five.
+
+Majorcan society, bound up in its traditional preoccupations, like a
+mollusk in its shell, and hostile by instinct to impious novelties from
+Paris, waxed indignant over this scandal. They were not married! And she
+wrote novels which startled respectable people by their audacity!
+Feminine curiosity wished to read them, but only Don Horacio Febrer,
+Jaime's grandfather, received books in Majorca, and the small volumes of
+"Indiana" and "Lelia," belonging to him, passed from hand to hand
+without being understood by their readers. A married woman who wrote
+books and lived with a man who was not her husband! Dona Elvira, Jaime's
+grandmother, a senora from Mexico, whose portrait he had so often seen,
+and whom he imagined always dressed in white with her eyes turned
+heavenward and her gilded harp between her knees, called upon the
+retiring woman at Son Vent. She enjoyed overwhelming the ladies of the
+island who did not know French with the superiority of the foreigner;
+she listened to the novelist's lyric eulogies of the originality of this
+African landscape, with its little white houses, spiny cacti, slender
+palms, and aged olive trees, in such striking contrast to the harmonious
+order of the broad fields of France. Then Dona Elvira, in the social
+gatherings at Palma, defended the authoress with fervor--a poor
+emotional woman, whose everyday life was more like that of a Sister of
+Charity, more full of care and sorrow than of passion and pleasure. The
+grandfather took it upon himself to intervene and prohibit his wife's
+calls in order to quiet neighborhood gossip.
+
+The scandalous pair was completely ostracized. While the children were
+frolicking like young savages in the fields with their mother, the sick
+man sat at his dormitory window, or peeped out of his doorway, seeking a
+ray of sunshine. In the small hours of the night came the visit of the
+muse, and the man, sick and melancholy, seated himself at the piano,
+where, coughing and moaning, out of the bitterness of his spirit he
+improvised his voluptuous music.
+
+The owner of the estate of Son Vent, a bourgeois of the city, ordered
+the foreigners to move, as if they were a band of gypsies. The pianist
+was a consumptive and the landlord did not wish to have his property
+infected. Where should they go? To return to their own country would be
+difficult since it was in the middle of winter, and Chopin trembled like
+a forsaken bird, thinking of the chill of Paris. He loved the island,
+despite the inhospitable people, because of the suavity of its climate.
+The Cartuja of Valldemosa offered itself as their sole refuge, a
+building devoid of architectural beauty, with no other charm than that
+of its medieval antiquity, situated in the mountains with pine-covered
+slopes, having, like delicate curtains tempering the sun's ardor,
+plantations of almond and palm, through the branches of which the eye
+could make out the green plain and the distant sea. It was a monument
+almost in ruins, a monastery suggesting melodrama, gloomy and
+mysterious, in the cloisters of which camped vagabonds and beggars. To
+enter it one must cross the old cemetery of the friars with its graves
+disturbed by the roots of forest trees thrusting bones up to the very
+surface. On moonlight nights a white phantom stalked through the
+cloisters, the shade of a wicked friar who haunted the place of his
+misdeeds, while awaiting the hour of redemption.
+
+Thither went the fugitives one stormy winter day, buffeted by wind and
+rain, traveling along the same route which Febrer now followed, but by
+an old road which barely deserved the name. The wagons of the caravan
+climbed, as George Sand said, "with one wheel on the mountain and the
+other in the bed of a gully." The musician, wrapped in his cape, sat
+trembling and coughing under the canvas cover, throbbing with pain as
+the vehicle jolted over the rough ground. The novelist herself followed
+on foot over the worst places, leading her children by the hand on this
+vagabond journey.
+
+They spent the entire winter in the isolation of the Cartuja. She,
+wearing Turkish slippers, the little dagger always thrust into her
+ill-combed hair, courageously did the cooking with the assistance of a
+young peasant girl who took advantage of every opportunity to gorge
+herself with the dainties intended for the "beloved invalid." The
+urchins of Valldemosa stoned the little French children, calling them
+Moors and disbelievers in God; the women cheated the mother when they
+sold her provisions, and moreover they dubbed her "the witch." They all
+made the sign of the cross when they met these "gypsies" who dared to
+live in a cell at the monastery, neighbors to the dead, in constant
+communication with the spectral friar who stalked through the cloister.
+
+By day, while the invalid was resting, George Sand prepared the broth,
+and with her slender, white, artistic hands, helped the maidservant to
+peel the vegetables; then, with, her two children she would race down
+to the abrupt, tree-covered beach of Miramar where Ramon Lull had
+established his school of oriental study. Only at the approach of night
+did her real existence begin.
+
+Then the great gloomy cloister vibrated with mysterious music which
+seemed to float in from afar through the heavy walls. It was Chopin,
+bending over the piano composing his Nocturnes. The novelist, by the
+light of the candle was writing "Spiridion," the story of the monk who
+finally forsook his faith; but frequently she laid aside her work to
+rush to the musician's side and give him medicine, alarmed at the
+frequency of his cough. On moonlight nights, tempted by the thrill of
+the mysterious, in a voluptuosity of fear, she stole out into the
+cloister where the darkness was pierced by the milky spots of the window
+panes. Nobody!... Then she would sit down in the monks' cemetery vainly
+awaiting the apparition of the ghostly friar to enliven her monotonous
+existence with a novel adventure.
+
+One night during Carnival season Cartuja was invaded by "Moors." They
+were young men from Palma, who, after having overrun the town disguised
+as Berbers, thought of the "French woman," ashamed, no doubt, at the
+isolation in which she was held by the townspeople. They arrived at
+midnight, with their songs and guitars breaking the mysterious calm of
+the monastery, frightening away the birds perched in the ruins. In one
+corner of the cell they danced Spanish dances which Chopin watched
+attentively with his fever-lighted eyes, while the novelist flitted from
+group to group, experiencing the simple joy of the bourgeoise at finding
+herself not forgotten.
+
+This was her single happy night in Majorca. Afterward, with the return
+of spring, the "beloved invalid" felt relief and they began a leisurely
+return to Paris. They were birds of passage, who, after wintering on
+this "Fortunate Isle," left no other trace than an undying tradition.
+
+Jaime could not even find out with certainty which room she had
+occupied. The changes which had taken place in the monastery had
+obliterated every vestige. Many families from Palma now spent the summer
+at Cartuja, transforming the cells into handsome apartments, and each
+one wished it to be understood that his was the one which had been
+occupied by George Sand, she who had been defamed and ostracized by
+their grandmothers. Febrer had visited the monastery with a
+nonagenarian, who had been one of the youths that had gone dressed as
+Moors to serenade the Frenchwoman. He could not remember any details nor
+could he even recognize her room.
+
+Don Horacio's grandson experienced a kind of retrospective affection for
+that extraordinary woman. He imagined her as she appeared in her
+youthful pictures, with expressionless face and deep enigmatic eyes
+beneath fluffy hair, with no other decoration than a rose over one
+temple. Poor George Sand! Love had been for her like the ancient Sphinx:
+each time that she ventured to interrogate it she had felt its merciless
+blow upon her heart. She had tasted all love's abnegations and
+perversities. The capricious woman of the Venetian nights, the
+unfaithful companion of de Musset, was the same nurse who cooked the
+meals and prepared the cough syrups for the dying Chopin in the
+solitudes of Valldemosa. If only Jaime had known a woman like that, a
+woman who combined within herself the natures of a thousand women, with
+all their infinite feminine variety of sweetness and cruelty!... To be
+loved by a superior woman upon whom he could impose his masculine will,
+and who at the same time would inspire him with respect for her was his
+dream.
+
+Febrer sat as if stupefied by this thought, staring at the landscape
+without seeing it. Then he smiled ironically, as if realizing his own
+insignificance. The object of his journey flashed across his mind, and
+he pitied himself. He, who had been dreaming of a grand, unselfish,
+extraordinary love, was on his way to sell himself, offering his hand
+and his name to a woman whom he had barely seen, to contract an alliance
+which would scandalize the whole island... worthy end to a useless,
+unbridled life!
+
+The emptiness of his existence was revealed to him clearly now, stripped
+of the deceptions of personal vanity, as he had never seen it before.
+The nearness of his sacrifice stirred him to re-live the past in his
+memory, as if seeking justification for his present acts. What purpose
+had been served by his passing through the world?
+
+He returned again to the childhood recollections which had been evoked
+on the road to Soller. He imagined himself in the venerable Febrer
+mansion with his parents and his grandfather. He was an only son. His
+mother, a pale lady of melancholy beauty, had been left an invalid as
+the result of his birth. Don Horacio lived in the second story, in the
+company of an old servant, as if he were a guest in the house, mingling
+with the family or isolating himself according to caprice. Jaime, in the
+midst of his childhood recollections, beheld his grandfather's figure in
+prominent relief. Never had he surprised a smile on that white-bearded
+face, which contrasted with his dark and imperious eyes. The members of
+the household were prohibited from ascending to his apartments. No one
+had ever seen him except when in street dress, which was always
+scrupulously neat. His grandson, who was the only one allowed in his
+dormitory at all hours, found him early in the morning in his blue coat
+with high, pointed collar and a black stock folded around his neck,
+ornamented with an enormous pearl. He maintained this correct old-time
+elegance until overtaken by illness. Whenever sickness compelled him to
+keep his bed he would give orders to his servant not to admit even his
+son.
+
+Jaime used to pass many hours seated at his grandfather's feet,
+listening to his tales, and at the same time awed by the enormous number
+of books which overflowed the bookcases and littered the tables and
+chairs. He found him ever the same, wearing his coat lined with red
+silk, which seemed changeless, but which was renewed, nevertheless, once
+every six months. The seasons brought no other variation than that of
+converting the velvet winter waistcoat into another of embroidered silk.
+His pride was centered chiefly upon his linen and his books. He ordered
+from abroad dozens of shirts which frequently lay in the bottom of the
+clothes press forgotten and yellowing and never worn. The booksellers of
+Paris sent him enormous packages of recent volumes, and in view of his
+unceasing orders added "Bookseller" to the address, a title which Don
+Horacio displayed with playful satisfaction.
+
+He talked to the last of the Febrers with grandfatherly kindness, trying
+to make him understand his tales, despite the fact that he was sparing
+of words and showed little patience in his relations with the rest of
+the family. He told of his journeys to Paris, and to London, sometimes
+in a sailing vessel as far as Marseilles and then by post-chaise; again
+by steam-engines along iron roadways, great inventions the infancy of
+which he had seen. He told of society at the court of Louis Philippe;
+of the great beginnings of the romanticist movement in which he had
+taken part; and he told of the barricades thrown up in the streets which
+he had watched from his room, not mentioning that, at the same time, his
+arm was encircling the waist of a grisette peeping out of the window
+beside him. His grandson, he would say, had been born in a glorious
+epoch, the best of all. Don Horacio recollected the disagreements with
+his terrible father that had compelled him to travel through Europe;
+that caballero who had gone out to meet King Ferdinand, to ask him for
+the reestablishment of ancient usages, and who blessed his sons, saying:
+"May God make you a good inquisitor!"
+
+Then he would display before Jaime great books containing views of
+splendid capitals in which he had lived, and which to the boy seemed
+like cities beheld in a dream. Sometimes he would remain lost in
+contemplation of the picture of "the grandmother with the harp," his
+wife, the interesting Dona Elvira, the same canvas which now hung in the
+reception hall among the other ladies of the family. He did not seem
+moved; he maintained the same grave demeanor which accompanied the jests
+to which he was addicted and the coarse words with which he sprinkled
+his conversations, but he said in a somewhat tremulous voice:
+
+"Your grandmother was a great lady, with the soul of an angel, an
+artist. I seemed like a barbarian beside her. She was one of our family,
+but she came from Mexico to marry me. Her father was a sea-faring man,
+and he stayed over there with the insurgents. There is no one in all our
+race who resembles her."
+
+At half past eleven in the morning he would dismiss his grandson, and
+putting on his tall hat, black silk in winter and beaver in summer, he
+would sally forth to take a stroll along the streets of Palma, always
+through the same locality and along identical pavements, rain or shine,
+insensible to cold and to heat, wearing his frock coat in every weather,
+continuing on his way with the regularity of a clock automaton which
+steps out, travels his little course, and then conceals himself at the
+stroke of certain hours.
+
+Only once in thirty years had he varied his route through the white and
+deserted sunny streets. One morning he had heard a woman's voice issuing
+from the interior of a house:
+
+"Atlota--twelve o'clock; Don Horacio is passing. Put on the rice."
+
+He turned toward the door, saying with lordly gravity:
+
+"I'm no wench's clock!" He jerked out the abusive words without
+sacrificing any of his dignity. From that day he changed his route to
+disappoint those whom he perceived had come to depend on his
+punctuality.
+
+Sometimes he talked to his grandson about the ancient greatness of the
+house. Geographical discoveries had ruined the Febrers. The
+Mediterranean was no longer the highway to the Orient. The Portuguese
+and Spanish of the other sea had discovered new routes and the Majorcan
+ships lay rotting in idleness. There were no longer battles with
+pirates. The Holy Order of Malta was now only an honorable distinction.
+A brother of his father, knight commander at Valetta when Bonaparte
+conquered the island, had come to spend his last days in Palma with only
+the meagre pension of a half-pay officer. It had been two centuries
+since the Febrers, forgotten on the sea where there was no longer any
+commerce, and where only poor padrones and fishermen's sons now made
+war, had given themselves up to investing their name with a splendrous
+luxury, which gradually ruined them. The grandfather had witnessed the
+times of genuine seigniory, when to be a butifarra in Majorca was
+something which the people rated between God and caballeros. The arrival
+of a Febrer in the world was an event which was discussed throughout the
+entire city. The great parturient dame remained secluded in the palace
+forty days, and during all this time the doors were open, the zaguan
+filled with vehicles, the whole retinue of servants lined up in the
+ante-chamber, the salons filled with callers, the tables covered with
+sweets, cakes, and refreshments. Days of the week were set apart for the
+reception of each social class. Some were only for the butifarras, the
+aristocracy of the aristocrats, privileged houses, renowned families,
+all united by the relationship of continual inter-marriage; other days
+for caballeros, traditional nobility who were looked down upon by the
+former without knowing why; next the mossons were received, an inferior
+class, but in familiar contact with the grandees, the intellectual
+people of the epoch, doctors, lawyers, and scriveners, who loaned their
+services to illustrious families.
+
+Don Horacio recalled the splendor of these receptions. The people of the
+olden time knew how to do things in the grand way.
+
+"It was when your father was born," he said to his grandson, "that the
+last fiesta was held in this house. I paid a confectioner on the Paseo
+del Borne eight hundred Majorcan pounds for sweets, cakes, and
+refreshments."
+
+Jaime actually remembered less about his father than about his
+grandfather. In his memory he was a sweet and sympathetic figure, but
+somewhat dim. When he thought of him he recalled only a soft, light
+beard like his own, a bald forehead, a happy smile, and eyeglasses which
+glittered as he bent over. It was said that when a boy he had a love
+affair with his cousin Juana, that austere senora whom everybody called
+the "Pope-ess," who lived like a nun, and who enjoyed enormous riches,
+making prodigal donations in former times to the pretender Don Carlos,
+and now to the ecclesiastics who surrounded her.
+
+The rupture between his father and Juana the Popess was, no doubt, the
+reason why she held herself aloof from this branch of the family and
+treated Jaime with hostile frigidity.
+
+His father had been an officer in the Navy, in accordance with family
+tradition. He was in the war on the Pacific coast of South America; he
+was a lieutenant on one of the frigates that bombarded Callao, and, as
+if he only desired to give a proof of his valor, he immediately retired
+from the service. Then he married a senorita of Palma, of meager
+fortune, whose father was military governor of the island of Iviza. The
+Popess Juana, talking with Jaime one day, had tried to wound him by
+saying in her cold voice and with her haughty mien: "Your mother was
+noble; of a family of caballeros--but she was not a butifarra like
+ourselves!"
+
+The early years of his life, when Jaime first began to take notice of
+the things about him, were passed without seeing his father save during
+hasty trips to Majorca. He was a progressive, and the reform party had
+made him a deputy. Later, when Amadis of Savoy was proclaimed king, this
+revolutionary monarch, execrated and deserted by the traditional
+nobility, had been compelled to turn to new historic names to form his
+court. The butifarra, Febrer, through a party demand, became a high
+palace functionary. When he insisted that his wife should remove to
+Madrid she refused to abandon the island. She go to the Court! How about
+his son? Don Horacio, steadily growing more slender and weak, but ever
+erect in his eternal new frock coat, continued taking his daily stroll,
+adjusting his life to the ticking of the clock of the ayuntamiento. An
+old time liberal, a great admirer of Martinez de la Rosa for his verses
+and the diplomatic elegance of his cravats, made a wry face when he read
+the newspapers and the letters from his son. What was all this leading
+to?
+
+During the short period of the Republic the father returned to the
+island, considering his career ended. The Popess Juana, despite the fact
+of their relationship, refused to recognize him. She was much occupied
+during that epoch. She made journeys to the Peninsula; it was said that
+she turned over enormous sums to the partisans of Don Carlos who were
+carrying on the war in Catalonia and the northern provinces. Let no one
+mention Jaime Febrer, the old time naval officer in her presence! She
+was a genuine butifarra, a defender of their traditions, and she was
+making sacrifices in order that Spain might be governed by gentlemen.
+Her cousin was worse than a Chueta; he was a shirtless beggar. According
+to the gossips bitterness for certain deceptions in the past which she
+could not forget was mingled with this hatred of his political
+professions.
+
+On the restoration of the Bourbons, this progressive, he who had been a
+palatine under Amadis, became a republican and a conspirator. He made
+frequent journeys; he received cipher letters from Paris; he went to
+Minorca to visit the squadron anchored in Port Mahon, and taking
+advantage of his former official friendships, he catechized his
+companions, planning an uprising of the navy. He threw into these
+revolutionary enterprises the adventurous ardor of the Febrers of old,
+the same cool daring, until he died suddenly in Barcelona, far from his
+kindred.
+
+The grandfather received the news with impassive gravity, but the
+neighbor women of Palma who awaited his passing along the streets to set
+their rice over the fire, saw him no more. Eighty-six! He had strolled
+enough. He had seen enough of this world. He retired to the second
+story, where he admitted no one but his grandson. When his relatives
+came to see him he preferred to go down to the reception hall, in spite
+of his debility, correctly attired, wearing his new frock coat, the two
+white triangles of his collar peeping above the folds of his stock,
+always freshly shaven, his side whiskers carefully combed and his toupee
+brilliant with pomatum. At last came a day when he could not leave his
+bed, and the grandson found him between the sheets, looking as usual,
+still wearing his fine batiste shirt, the stock which his servant
+changed for him every day, and the flowered silk waistcoat. When a call
+from his daughter-in-law was announced Don Horacio made a gesture of
+annoyance.
+
+"Jaimito,--the frock coat. It is a lady, and she must be received with
+decency."
+
+This operation was repeated when the doctor came, or when the few
+callers he deigned to receive were admitted. He must maintain himself
+"under arms" until his last moment, as he had been seen all his life.
+
+One afternoon he called with a weak voice to his grandson who sat by a
+window reading a book of travel. The boy might retire. He wished to be
+alone. Jaime left the room, and so the grandfather was able to die in
+solitude, free from the torment of having to pay attention to the
+neatness of his appearance, with no witnesses to the grimaces and
+contortions of the last agony.
+
+Febrer and his mother being left alone, the boy grew eager for
+independence. His imagination was filled with the adventures and voyages
+of which he had read in his grandfather's library and he was inspired
+with the deeds of his forefathers immortalized in family history. He
+yearned to become a mariner or a warrior, like his father and like the
+majority of his ancestors. His mother opposed him with an agony of dread
+which turned her cheeks pale and her lips blue. The last Febrer leading
+a life of danger far from her side! No! There had been heroes enough in
+the family. He must be a senor on the island, a gentleman of tranquil
+life who would raise a family to perpetuate the name he bore.
+
+Jaime yielded to the prayers of his mother, that eternal invalid, in
+whom the slightest opposition seemed to precipitate the danger of death.
+Since she did not wish him to be a sea-faring man he must study for
+another career. He must live as did the other youths of his age with
+whom he mingled in the lecture halls of the Institute. At sixteen he set
+sail for the Peninsula. His mother wished that he should be a lawyer in
+order that he might disentangle the family fortune, burdened and
+oppressed with mortgages and other indebtedness.
+
+The luggage with which he started was enormous--enough to furnish a
+house--and likewise his pocket was well lined. A Febrer must not live
+like any poor student! First he went to Valencia, his mother believing
+that city less dangerous for the young. For the next course of lectures
+he passed on to Barcelona, and thus several years were spent flitting
+from one University to another, according to the notions of the
+professors and their ready connivance with the students. He made no
+great progress in his career. He sneaked through certain courses by the
+cool audacity with which he talked of things of which he knew nothing,
+and passed examinations by some lucky chance. In others he flunked
+completely. His mother accepted his explanations in good faith on his
+return to Majorca. She consoled him, advising him not to exert himself
+too much over his studies, and she railed against the injustice of the
+times. Her implacable enemy, the Popess Juana, was right. These were no
+times for gentlemen; war had been declared against them; all manner of
+injustices were committed to keep them in the background.
+
+Jaime enjoyed a certain popularity in the clubs and cafes of Barcelona
+and Valencia where he gambled. They called him "the Majorcan of the
+ounces," because his mother remitted his gold in gold ounces, which
+rolled with scandalous glitter across the green tables. Adding to the
+prestige given by this extravagance was his strange title of butifarra,
+which caused a smile in the Peninsula, yet at the same time it evoked in
+the imagination a picture of feudal authority, accompanied with the
+rights of a sovereign lord in those distant islands.
+
+Five years passed. Jaime was now a man, but he had not yet compassed the
+half of his studies. His fellow-students from the island, when they came
+home in summer, entertained their cronies in the cafes on the Paseo del
+Borne with stories of Febrer's adventures in Barcelona; how he was
+frequently seen on the streets with luxurious women clinging to his arm;
+how the rude people who frequented the gambling houses showed respect
+for the "Majorcan of the ounces" on account of his strength and courage;
+they told how, one night, he had laid hands on a certain bully, lifting
+him off his feet in his athletic arms, and hurling him out of the
+window. The peaceful Majorcans, on hearing this, smiled with local
+pride. He was a Febrer, a genuine Febrer! The island still produced
+valiant youths as of old!
+
+Good Dona Purificacion, Jaime's mother, experienced grave displeasure
+and at the same time maternal joy on hearing that a certain scandalous
+woman had followed her son to the island. She understood it, and she
+forgave her. A youth as attractive as her Jaime! But with her dresses
+and her habits the young woman disturbed the tranquil customs of the
+city; the staid families became indignant, and, Dona Purificacion,
+making use of intermediaries, came to an understanding with her, giving
+her money on the condition that she should leave the island. At other
+vacation times the scandal was even greater. Jaime, who had gone to Son
+Febrer on a hunting trip, had an affair with a pretty peasant girl and
+was on the point of shooting a rustic swain who pretended to her hand.
+His rural love adventures helped him to pass his summer exile. He was a
+true Febrer, like his grandfather. The poor lady had known how to deal
+with that ever grave and dignified father-in-law who nevertheless
+chucked young peasant girls under the chin without losing his sedate and
+lordly frigidity. In the vicinity of the estate of Son Febrer were many
+youths who bore the features of Don Horacio, but his wife, the Mexican
+lady, poetic soul, lived above such vulgarities, while, with her, harp
+between her knees and her eyes dilated she recited Ossian's poems. The
+rustic beauties with their snowy rebocillos, their hanging braids, and
+white hempen sandals, attracted the immaculate and lordly Febrers with
+an irresistible force.
+
+When Dona Purificacion complained of the long hunting excursions which
+her son took throughout the island, he would stay in the city and spend
+the day in the garden, practising shooting with a pistol. He called his
+mother's attention to a sack lying in the shade of an orange tree.
+
+"Do you see that? It is a quintal of powder. I shall not stop until I
+have used it all up."
+
+Mammy Antonia was afraid to peep out of her kitchen windows, and the
+nuns who occupied a portion of the ancient palace showed their white
+hoods for an instant, and then hid themselves immediately like doves
+frightened by the continual popping.
+
+The garden with its battlemented enclosure, contiguous to the sea wall,
+rang from morning till night with the sound of the detonations. The
+astonished birds flew away; green lizards crept over the cracked walls
+hiding in the shelter of the ivy; cats leaped along the paths in terror.
+The trees were very old, venerable as the palace itself; centenarian
+oranges with twisted trunks, leaning on the support of a circle of
+forked sticks to hold up their ancient limbs; gigantic magnolias with
+more wood than leaves; unfruitful palms lifting themselves into blue
+space, seeking the sea which they greeted above the merlons with the
+fluttering plumes of their crested heads.
+
+The sun made the bark of the trees creak, and forgotten seeds on the
+ground burst forth; insects buzzing across the bars of light which shot
+through the foliage danced like golden sparks; ripe figs loosened from
+the branches fell with soft patter; in the distance rose the murmur of
+the sea lashing the rocks at the foot of the wall. This calm was broken
+only by Febrer who continued firing his pistol. He had become a master
+shot. When he aimed at the figure sketched on the wall he lamented that
+it was not a man, some hated enemy whom he must needs exterminate. Bang!
+That ball pierced his heart! He smiled with satisfaction at seeing the
+bullet hole outlined on the very spot at which he had aimed. The noise
+of the shooting, the smoke of the powder, aroused in his imagination
+warlike fancies, stories of struggle and death in which he was always
+the victorious hero. Twenty years old and yet he had never fought a
+duel! He must have a fight with someone to prove his courage. It was a
+disgrace that he had no enemies, but he would try to make some when he
+returned to the Peninsula. Continuing these vagaries of his imagination,
+excited by the cracking detonations, he pretended an affair of honor.
+His adversary wounded him with the first shot and he fell. He still had
+his pistol in his hand; he must defend himself while stretched on the
+ground; and to the great scandal of his mother and of Mammy Antonia who
+thought him crazy as they peeped out of the window, he continued lying
+face downward shooting in this position, preparing for the time when he
+should be wounded.
+
+When he returned to the Peninsula to continue his interminable studies,
+he went refreshed by the country life, sure of himself after his
+practice in the garden and eager to have the longed for duel with the
+first man who should give him the slightest pretext. But as he was a
+courteous person, incapable of unjust provocation, with manners that
+inspired respect from the insolent, time passed and the duel did not
+take place. His exuberant vitality, his impulsive strength, were
+consumed in dark adventures, of which his fellow students afterward told
+on the island with admiration.
+
+While in Barcelona he received a telegram announcing that his mother was
+seriously ill. He was delayed two days before sailing; there was no boat
+ready. When he reached the island his mother was dead. Of the ancient
+family which he had seen in his childhood none remained. Only Mammy
+Antonia could recall the past.
+
+Jaime was twenty-three when he found himself master of the Febrer
+fortune, and in absolute liberty. The fortune had been diminished by the
+ostentation of his ancestors and burdened with encumbrances. The Febrer
+house was big. It was like vessels which when wrecked and lost forever
+enrich the coast where they are dashed to pieces. The remains and
+spoils, upon which his ancestors would have looked with scorn, still
+represented a fortune. Jaime did not wish to think. He did not wish to
+know. He must live; he must see the world! So he gave up his studies.
+What need had he for law, and for Roman customs, and for ecclesiastical
+canons, in order to lead a gay existence? He knew enough. In reality,
+the most delightful of his accomplishments he owed to his mother. When
+he was a child still living in the palace, before he had ever seen a
+schoolmaster, she had taught him something of French and had given him a
+little instruction on an ancient piano with yellow keys and a great red
+silk reredos almost touching the ceiling. Others knew less than he, and
+yet they were just as gentlemanly and they were much happier. Now for
+life! He stayed two years in Madrid; where he affected mistresses who
+gave him a certain notoriety, and drove famous horses. He became the
+intimate friend of a celebrated bull-fighter, and he gambled heavily in
+the clubs on Alcala Street. He fought a duel, but with swords, instead
+of lying on the ground, pistol in hand, as he had formerly pictured to
+himself, and he came out of the affair with a scratch on his arm,
+something in the nature of a pin prick in the epidermis of an elephant.
+He was no longer "the Majorcan with the ounces." The hoard of round gold
+pieces treasured by his mother had vanished. He now flung bank bills
+prodigally upon the gaming tables, and when bad luck assailed him he
+wrote to his administrator, a lawyer, the scion of a family of old time
+mossons, retainers of the Febrers during many centuries.
+
+Jaime wearied of Madrid, where he felt himself essentially a stranger.
+The soul of the ancient Febrers lingered within him--those travelers
+through all countries except Spain, for they had ever lived with their
+backs turned upon their sovereigns. Many of his ancestors were familiar
+with every one of the important Mediterranean cities, they had visited
+the princes of the small Italian states, they had been received in
+audience by the Pope and by the Grand Turk, but never had it occurred to
+them to visit Madrid. Moreover, Febrer was often irritated with his
+relatives in the court city--youths proud of their noble titles who
+smiled at his odd appellation of butifarra. With what indifference his
+family had allowed various marquisates to descend to relatives on the
+Peninsula while they clung to their supreme title of island nobility and
+the high knightly rank of Malta!
+
+He began to run over Europe, fixing his residence in the autumn and
+during part of the winter in Paris; spending the cold months on the Blue
+Coast; spring in London; summer in Ostend; with various trips to Italy,
+Egypt, and Norway to see the midnight sun. In this new existence he was
+barely known. He was one traveler more, an insignificant circulating
+globule in the great arterial network which desire for travel extends
+over the Continent; but this life of continual movement, of tedious
+monotony, and unexpected adventures, satisfied his hereditary instinct,
+the inclinations transmitted from his remote ancestors, constant
+visitors among new peoples. This wandering existence, also, satiated
+his longing for the extraordinary. In the hotels at Nice, phalansteries
+of the most polite and hypocritical worldly corruption, he had been
+flattered in the seclusion of his room by unexpected visits. In Egypt he
+had been compelled to flee from the caresses of a decadent Hungarian
+countess, a withered flower of elegance, with moist eyes and violent
+perfume.
+
+He passed his twenty-eighth birthday in Munich. A short time before he
+had gone to Bayreuth to hear the Wagnerian operas, and now in the
+capital of Bavaria he attended the theater of the Residence, where the
+Mozart festival was celebrated. Jaime was not a melomaniac, but his
+vagrant existence forced him with the crowd, and his accomplishment as
+an amateur pianist had led him to make his musical pilgrimage for two
+consecutive years.
+
+In the hotel in Munich he met Miss Mary Gordon, whom he had seen before
+at the Wagner theater. She was an English girl, tall, slender, with firm
+flesh and the body of a gymnast which exercise had developed into
+agreeable feminine curves, giving her a youthful figure, and the
+wholesome, asexual appearance of a handsome boy. Her beautiful head was
+that of a court page, with skin as transparent as porcelain, pink
+nostrils like those of a toy dog, deep blue eyes and blonde hair, pale
+gold on the surface and dark gold beneath. Her beauty was adorable but
+fragile; that British beauty which is lost at thirty beneath purplish
+flushes and blotches on the skin.
+
+In the restaurant Jaime had several times surprised the gaze of her blue
+eyes, frankly, tranquilly bold, fixed upon him. She was attended by a
+fat, spongy woman with rouged cheeks, a traveling companion dressed in
+black with a red straw hat and a broad belt of the same color, which
+divided the bulky hemispheres of her breast and abdomen. Young and
+graceful, Mary Gordon resembled a flower of gold and nacre in her white
+flannel suits of masculine cut with a mannish cravat, and a Panama with
+drooping brim around which she wound a blue veil.
+
+Febrer met the pair at every turn; in the picture gallery, standing
+before Durer's Evangelists; in the hall of sculpture examining Egina's
+marbles; in the rococo theater of the Residence, where Mozart was sung,
+an audience hall of a former century, with decorations of porcelain and
+garlands which seemed to require that the spectators wear the purple
+heel and the white wig. Accustomed to meeting each other, Jaime greeted
+her with a smile and she seemed to answer timidly with the flash of her
+eyes.
+
+One morning, on coming out of his room, he met the English girl on a
+landing of the stairway. She was bending her boyish breast over the
+balustrade.
+
+"Lift! Lift!" she called with her birdlike voice, summoning the elevator
+man to bring it up.
+
+Febrer bowed as he entered the movable cage with her, and said a few
+words in French to start a conversation. The English girl stared at him
+in silence with her light blue eyes in which a star of gold seemed to be
+floating. She remained silent as if she did not understand, yet Jaime
+had seen her in the reading room turning the leaves of the Parisian
+dailies.
+
+Stepping out of the elevator she turned with hasty step toward the
+office where sat the hotel clerk, pen in hand. He listened with
+obsequious mien, like a polyglot quick to understand each of his guests,
+and coming out from his enclosure he made straight toward Jaime, who,
+still embarrassed by his unsuccessful venture, was pretending to read
+the advertisements in the vestibule. Febrer at first did not realize
+that it was he who was being addressed.
+
+"Senor, this lady asks me to introduce you to her," said the clerk.
+
+Turning toward the English girl he added with Teutonic composure, like
+one fulfilling a duty, "Monsieur the hidalgo Febrer, Marquis of Spain."
+
+He understood the part he was playing. Everyone who travels with good
+valises is an hidalgo and a marquis until the contrary be proven.
+
+Then, with his eyes, he indicated the English girl who stood stiff and
+grave during the ceremony without which no well-bred woman may exchange
+a word with a man: "Miss Gordon, doctor of the University of Melbourne."
+
+The young lady extended her white gloved hand and shook Febrer's with
+gymnastic vigor. Not till then did she venture to speak:
+
+"Oh, Spain! Oh, 'Don Quixote'!"
+
+Unconsciously they strolled out of the hotel together discussing the
+afternoon performances which they had attended. There was to be no
+function at the theaters that day and she was thinking of going to the
+park called Theresienwiese, at the foot of the statue of Bavaria, to see
+the Tyrolese fair and to listen to the folk-songs. After breakfasting at
+the hotel they went to the fair grounds; they climbed upon an enormous
+statue and viewed the Bavarian plain, its lakes and its distant
+mountains; they explored the Memorial Hall, filled with busts of
+celebrated Bavarians, most of whose names they read for the first time,
+and they finished by going from booth to booth, admiring the costumes of
+the Tyrolese, their gymnastic dances, their birdlike warbling and
+trilling.
+
+They went about as if they had known each other all their lives, Jaime
+admiring the masculine liberty of Saxon girls who are not afraid of
+associating with men and who feel strong in their ability to take care
+of themselves. From that day they visited together museums, academies,
+old churches, sometimes alone, and again with the companion, who made
+strenuous exertions to keep pace with them. They were comrades who
+communicated their impressions without thinking of difference of sex.
+Jaime was disposed to take advantage of this intimacy by making gallant
+speeches, by risking little advances, but he restrained himself. With
+women like this action might be dangerous, they remain impassive, proof
+against all manner of impressions. He must wait until she should take
+the initiative. These were women who could go alone around the world,
+likely to interrupt passionate advances with the blows of a trained
+boxer. He had seen some in his travels who carried diminutive
+nickel-plated revolvers in their muffs or in their handbags along with
+powder box and handkerchief.
+
+Mary Gordon told of the distant Oceanic archipelago in which her father
+exercised authority like a viceroy. She had no mother, and she had come
+to Europe to complete studies begun in Australia. She held the degree of
+Doctor from the University of Melbourne; a doctor of music. Jaime,
+suppressing his astonishment at this news from a distant world, told of
+himself, of his family, of his native land, of the curiosities of the
+island, of the cavern of Arta, tragically grand, chaotic as an
+ante-chamber of the inferno; of the Dragon's caves with their forests of
+stalactites, glistening like an ice palace, of its thousand placid
+lakes, from the deep crystal depths of which it seemed as if nude sirens
+would arise like those Rhine maidens who guarded the treasure of the
+Niebelungs. Mary listened to him, entranced. Jaime seemed to grow
+greater before her eyes, as she learned that he was a son of that isle
+of dreams, where the sea is always blue, where the sun is ever shining,
+and where blooms the orange flower.
+
+Febrer began to spend his afternoons in the room of the English girl.
+The performances of the Mozart festival were ended. Miss Gordon needed
+daily the spiritual uplift of music. She had a piano in her reception
+room, and a roll of opera scores which accompanied her on her travels.
+Jaime sat near, before the keyboard, trying to accompany the pieces she
+was interpreting, ever those of the same author, the god, the only! The
+hotel was near the station, and the noise of drays, carriages and street
+cars annoyed the English woman and she closed the windows. Her stout
+companion had gone to her own apartment, rejoiced at being free from
+that musical tempest, the delights of which could not compare with those
+of making a good bit of Irish point lace. Miss Gordon, alone with the
+Spaniard, treated him as if she were a master.
+
+"Come, do that again; let us repeat the theme of the sword. Pay
+attention!"
+
+But Jaime was distracted, peeping out of the corner of his eye at the
+girl's long, white neck bristling with little golden locks, at the
+network of blue veins delicately outlined beneath the transparency of
+her pearly skin.
+
+One afternoon it rained; the leaden sky seemed to graze the roofs of the
+houses; in the reception room there was the diffused light of a cellar.
+They were playing almost in the dark, bending their heads forward to
+read the score. Forth rolled the music of the forest of enchantments,
+moving its green and whispering tree tops before the rude Siegfried, the
+innocent child of Nature, eager to know the language of the soul and of
+inanimate things. The master-bird sang, his voice rising above the
+murmur of the foliage. Mary was trembling with excitement.
+
+"Ah, poet! Poet!"
+
+She continued playing. Then, in the growing darkness of the room,
+sounded the strong chords which accompanied the hero to the tomb; the
+funeral march of the warriors bearing upon the shield the muscular body
+of Siegfried, with his golden hair, interrupting the melancholy phrase
+of the God of gods. Mary continued trembling, until suddenly her hands
+fell from the keyboard and her head rested on Jaime's shoulder, like a
+bird folding its wings.
+
+"Oh, Richard!... Richard, _mon bien aimee!_"
+
+The Spaniard saw her wandering eyes and her tremulous lips offering
+themselves to him; in his grasp he felt her cold hands; her breath
+floated about him. Against his bosom were pressed hidden curves of firm
+elastic plumpness, the existence of which he had not suspected.
+
+There was no more music that afternoon.
+
+At midnight when Febrer retired, he had not yet recovered from his
+astonishment. After so many fears, this was the way things had happened,
+with the greatest simplicity, as one is offered a hand, without exertion
+on his part.
+
+Another surprise had been to hear himself called by a name which was not
+his. Who could that Richard be? But in the hour of sweet and dreamy
+explanations which follow those of madness and forgetfulness, she had
+told him of the impression she had received in Bayreuth when she saw him
+for the first time among the thousand heads which filled the theater. It
+was he, the great musician, as he was portrayed in his youthful
+pictures! When she met him again in Munich beneath the same roof, she
+had felt that the die was cast and that it was useless to resist this
+attraction.
+
+Febrer examined himself with ironical curiosity in the mirror in his
+room. What ideas a woman is capable of conceiving! Yes, he was something
+like that other one--the heavy forehead, the drooping hair, the beaked
+nose, and the prominent chin, which, in years to come would turn inward,
+seeking each other, and give him a certain witchlike profile....
+Excellent and glorious Richard! By what miracle had Wagner brought to
+him one of the greatest joys of his existence! What an original woman
+was this!
+
+Astonishment, mingled with a shade of annoyance, grew upon Febrer as the
+days passed. She seemed to forget what had taken place, and to grow
+constantly more unapproachable. She received him with grave rigidity, as
+if nothing had occurred, as if the past had left no trace upon her mind,
+as if the day before had never been. Only when music evoked the memory
+of the other man came tenderness and submission.
+
+Jaime was irritated, and he determined to dominate her; he would prove
+himself a man! At last he triumphed to such an extent that the piano was
+heard less and she began to see in him something more than a living
+picture of her idol.
+
+In their happy intoxication Munich and the hotel in which they had seen
+each other as strangers seemed to them offensive. They felt the need of
+flying far away, where they could make love freely, and one day they
+found themselves in a port which had a stone lion at its entrance, while
+beyond spread the liquid surface of an immense lake which mingled with
+the sky on the horizon. They were in Lindau. One steamer could convey
+them to Switzerland, another to Constance, but they preferred the
+tranquil German city of the famous Ecumenical Council, establishing
+themselves in the Island Hotel, an ancient Dominican Monastery.
+
+Febrer was stirred as he contemplated this epoch, the happiest of his
+existence! Mary continued for him ever an original woman, in whom there
+was always something left to conquer; tolerant at certain hours,
+repellant and austere throughout the rest of the day. He was her lover,
+and yet she would not permit the slightest familiarity, nor any liberty
+which might reveal the confidence of their common life. The least
+allusion to their intimacy caused her to flush in protest. "Shocking!"
+Yet, every morning at daybreak Febrer sneaked into his room along the
+corridors of the old convent, unmade his bed so that the servants would
+not suspect, and he would show himself on the balcony. The birds were
+singing in the tall rose bushes in the garden below his feet. Beyond,
+the immense sheet of Lake Constance was flushing with purple tints
+caught from the rising sun. The first fishing barks were cleaving the
+orange tinted waters; in the distance sounded the cathedral bells,
+softened by the damp, morning breeze; the cranes began to creak on the
+quay where the waters cease to be a lake, and narrowing into a channel
+become the river Rhine; the footsteps of the servants and the swish of
+cleaning startled the monastic cloister with the noises of the hotel.
+
+Near the balcony, adjoining the wall, and so close that Jaime could
+touch it with his hand, was a small tower with a slate roof and with
+ancient coats of arms on the circular wall. It was the tower in which
+John Huss had been imprisoned before going to the stake.
+
+The Spaniard thought of Mary. At this time she must be in the perfumed
+shadows of her room, her blonde head clasped in her arms, sleeping her
+first real sleep of the night, her tired body still vibrant from
+fatigue. Poor John Huss! Febrer sympathized with him as if he had been
+his friend. To burn him in the presence of such a beautiful landscape,
+perhaps on a morning like this! To cast one's self into the wolf's
+mouth, and to give up one's life over the question whether the Pope were
+good or bad, or whether laymen should receive the sacrament with wine
+the same as priests! To die for such absurdities when life is so
+beautiful and the heretic might have enjoyed it so richly with any of
+the plump-breasted, big-hipped blonde women, friends of the cardinals,
+who witnessed his torture! Unhappy apostle! Jaime ironically pitied the
+simplicity of the martyr. He looked at life through different eyes.
+_Viva el amor!_ Love was the only thing worth while in life.
+
+They remained nearly a month in the ancient episcopal city, strolling
+out in the gloaming through the lonely, grass-grown streets with their
+crumbling palaces of the time of the Council; floating with the current
+down the river Rhine along its forest-clad banks; stopping to look at
+the tiny houses with red roofs and spacious arbors beneath which sang
+the bourgeoisie, stein in hand, with the Germanic joy of a subchanter,
+grave and reposeful.
+
+From Constance they passed on to Switzerland and afterward to Italy.
+They traveled together for a year viewing landscapes, seeing museums,
+visiting ruins, the windings and sheltered nooks in which Jaime made use
+of for kissing Mary's pearly skin, reveling in the rush of color and the
+gesture of annoyance with which she protested "Shocking!"
+
+The old traveling companion, unconscious as a suitcase of the points of
+interest in their journey, continued making the cloak of Irish point,
+beginning in Germany, and working at it while crossing the Alps, along
+the whole length of the Apennines, and in sight of Vesuvius and AEtna.
+Unable to talk with Febrer, who spoke no English, she greeted him with
+the yellowish glitter of her teeth and returned to her task, forming a
+conspicuous figure in the hotel lobbies.
+
+The two lovers spoke of marriage. Mary summed up the situation with
+energetic decision. She need only write a few lines to her father. He
+was very far away, and besides she never consulted him in regard to her
+affairs. He would approve whatever she did, sure of her wisdom and
+prudence.
+
+They were in Sicily, a land which reminded Febrer of his own island. The
+ancient members of his family had been here also, but with cuirasses on
+their breasts, and in worse company. Mary spoke of the future, arranging
+the financial side of the anticipated partnership with the practical
+sense of her race. It did not matter to her that Febrer had little
+fortune; she was rich enough for both; and she enumerated her worldly
+goods, lands, houses, and stocks like an administrator with accurate
+memory. On their return to Rome they would be married in the evangelical
+chapel and also in a Catholic church. She knew a cardinal who had
+arranged for her an audience with the Pope. His Eminence would manage
+everything.
+
+Jaime passed a sleepless night in a hotel in Syracuse. Marriage? Mary
+was agreeable; she made life pleasant, and she would bring with her a
+fortune. But should he really marry her? Then the other man began to
+annoy him, the illustrious shade which had appeared in Zurich, in
+Venice, in every place visited by them which held memories of the
+maestro's past. Jaime would grow old, and music, his formidable rival,
+would be ever fresh. In a little while, when marriage should have robbed
+his relations of the charm of illegality, of the delight of the
+prohibited, Mary would discover some orchestra leader who bore a still
+greater resemblance to the other man, or some ugly violinist with long
+hair and possessed of youth who would remind her of Beethoven in his
+boyhood. Besides, he was of different race, different customs and
+passions; he was tired of her shamefaced reserve in love, of her
+resistance to final submission which had pleased him at first, but which
+had come at last to bore him. No; there was yet time to save himself.
+
+"I regret it on account of what she will think of Spain. I regret it on
+account of Don Quixote," he said to himself while packing his suitcase
+one morning at sunrise.
+
+He fled, losing himself in Paris, where the English woman would never
+seek him. She hated that ungrateful city for its hissing of Tannhaeuser
+many years before she was born.
+
+Of these relations, which had lasted a year, Jaime cherished only the
+memory of a felicity, increased and sweetened by the passing of time and
+by a lock of golden hair. Then, too, he must have somewhere among his
+papers, guide books, and post cards, lying forgotten in an old secretary
+in the great house, a photograph of the feminine doctor of music,
+strangely adorable in her long-sleeved toga with a square plate-like cap
+from which hung a tassel.
+
+Of the rest of his life he remembered little; a void of tedium broken
+only by monetary worries. The administrator was slow and grudging in
+sending his remittances. Jaime would ask him for money and he would
+reply with grumbling letters, telling of interest which must be met, of
+second mortgages on which he could barely realize a loan, of the
+precariousness of a fortune in which nothing was left free of
+incumbrance.
+
+Febrer, believing that his presence might disentangle this wretched
+situation, made short trips to Majorca, which always resulted in the
+sale of property, yielding him scarcely enough money to take flight
+again, heedless of his administrator's advice. Money aroused in him a
+smiling optimism. Everything would turn out all right. As a last resort
+he counted on recourse to matrimony. Meanwhile,--he would live!
+
+He managed to exist a few years longer, sometimes in Madrid, or again in
+the great foreign cities, until at last his administrator brought this
+period of merry prodigality to an end by sending his resignation, with
+his accounts and his refusal to continue forwarding money.
+
+He had spent one year on the island, buried, as he said, with no other
+diversion than nights of gambling in the Casino and afternoons on the
+Paseo del Borne, sitting around a table with a company of friends,
+sedentary islanders who reveled in the stories of his travels. Misery
+and want--this was the reality of his present life. His creditors
+threatened him with immediate legal process. He still outwardly retained
+possession of Son Febrer and of other estates derived from his
+forefathers, but property yielded little on the island; the rents,
+according to traditional custom, were no higher than in the time of his
+ancestors, for the families of the original renters inherited the right
+to farm the lands. They made payments directly to his creditors, but
+even this did not satisfy half of the interest due. The palace was but a
+storehouse for its rich decorations. The noble mansion of the Febrers
+was submerged, and no one could float it. Sometimes Jaime calmly
+considered the convenience of slipping out of his wretched predicament
+with neither humiliation nor dishonor by letting himself be found some
+afternoon in the garden asleep forever under an orange tree with a
+revolver in his hand.
+
+One day in this frame of mind, a crony gave him an idea as he was
+leaving the Casino in the small hours of the night, one of those moments
+in which nervous insomnia causes a person to see things in an
+extraordinary light in which they stand out clearly. Don Benito Valls,
+the rich Jew, was very fond of him. Several times he had intervened,
+unsought, in his affairs, saving him from immediate ruin. It was due to
+personal liking for Febrer and to respect for his name. Valls had a
+single heiress, and, moreover, he was an invalid; the prolific
+exuberance characteristic of his race had not been fulfilled in him. His
+daughter Catalina, when she was younger, had wished to be a nun, but,
+now that she was past twenty, she felt a strong desire for the pomps and
+vanities of this world, and she expressed tender sympathy for Febrer
+whenever his misfortunes were discussed in her hearing.
+
+Jaime recoiled from the proposition with almost as much astonishment as
+Mammy Antonia. A Chueta! The idea, however, began to fasten itself upon
+his mind, lubricated in its incessant hammering by the ever increasing
+poverty and necessity which grew with the passing days. Why not? Valls'
+daughter was the richest heiress on the island, and money possessed
+neither blood nor race.
+
+At last he had yielded to the urging of his friends, officious mediators
+between himself and the family of the girl, and that morning he was on
+his way to breakfast at the house in Valldemosa where Valls resided the
+greater part of the year for relief from the asthma which was choking
+him.
+
+Jaime made an effort to remember Catalina. He had seen her several times
+on the streets of Palma--a good figure, a pleasant face! When she should
+live far from her kindred and should dress better, she would be quite
+presentable. But--could he love her?
+
+Febrer smiled skeptically. Was love indispensable to marriage? Matrimony
+was a trip in double harness for the rest of life, and one only needed
+to seek in the woman those qualities demanded of a traveling companion;
+good disposition, identical tastes, the same likes and dislikes in
+eating and drinking. Love! Every one believed he had a right to it,
+while love was like talent, like beauty, like fortune, a special gift
+which only rare and privileged persons might enjoy. By good luck,
+deception came to conceal this cruel inequality, and all human beings
+ended their days, thinking of their youth with melancholy longing,
+believing they had really known love, when they had in reality
+experienced nothing but a youthful delirium.
+
+Love was a beautiful thing, but not indispensable to matrimony nor to
+existence. The important thing was to choose a good companion for the
+rest of the journey; to set the pace of the two to the same tune, so
+that there should be no kicking over the traces nor collisions; to
+dominate the nerves so that there should be no jar during the continual
+contact of the common existence; to be able to lie down together like
+good comrades, with mutual respect, without wounding each other with the
+knees nor jabbing each other in the ribs with the elbows. He expected to
+find all these things and to consider himself well content.
+
+Suddenly Valldemosa appeared before his eyes above the crest of a hill,
+surrounded by mountains. The tower of La Cartuja, with its decorations
+of green tiles, rose above the foliage of the gardens and the cells.
+
+Febrer saw a carriage standing in a turn of the road. A man alighted
+from it, waving his arms so that Jaime's driver would stop his horses.
+Then he opened the carriage door and climbed in, smiling, taking a seat
+beside Febrer.
+
+"Hello Captain!" exclaimed Jaime in astonishment.
+
+"You didn't expect me, eh? I'm going to the breakfast, too; I have
+invited myself. What a surprise it will be for my brother!"
+
+Jaime pressed his hand. It was one of his most loyal friends, Captain
+Pablo Valls.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+JEW AND GENTILE
+
+
+Pablo Valls was known throughout all Palma. When he seated himself on
+the terrace of a cafe on the Paseo del Borne a compact circle of
+listeners would form around him, smiling at his forceful gestures and at
+his loud voice, which was ever incapable of discreet tones.
+
+"I am a Chueta, and what of that? A Jew of the Jews! All of my family
+come from 'the street.' When I was in command of the Roger de Lauria,
+being one day in Algiers, I stopped before the door of the Synagogue,
+and an old man, after looking me over, said: 'You may enter; you are one
+of us!' I gave him my hand and answered: 'Thanks, fellow-believer.'"
+
+His hearers laughed, and Captain Valls, proclaiming in a loud voice his
+Chuetan ancestry, glanced in every direction, as if defying the houses,
+the people, and the soul of the island, hostile to his race through the
+fanatical hatred of centuries.
+
+His physiognomy revealed his origin. His gray-tinged ruddy side whiskers
+denoted the retired sea-faring man, but between these shaggy adornments
+projected his Semitic profile, the heavy, aquiline nose, the prominent
+chin, the eyes with elongated lids, and pupil of amber and gold
+according to the play of light, and in which here and there floated
+tobacco-colored spots.
+
+He had been much on the sea; he had lived for long periods in England
+and in the United States; and as a result of his contact with those
+lands of liberty, free from religious tolerance, he had brought back a
+belligerent frankness which impelled him to defy the traditional
+prejudices of the island, socially and politically, unprogressive and
+stagnant. The other Chuetas, cowed by centuries of persecution and
+scorn, concealed their origin, or tried to make it forgotten through
+their humble demeanor. Captain Valls took advantage of every occasion to
+discuss the matter, parading the name of Chueta as a title of nobility,
+as a challenge which he hurled at the popular bias.
+
+"I am a Jew, and what of that?" he shouted again. "A co-religionist of
+Jesus, of Saint Paul, of the other saints who are venerated on the
+altars. The butifarras boast of their ancestors, but they date scarcely
+further back than yesterday. I am more noble, more ancient! My
+forefathers were the patriarchs of the Bible!"
+
+Then, waxing indignant over the antipathy to his race, he again became
+aggressive.
+
+"In all Spain," he announced gravely, "there is not a Christian who can
+lift a finger. We are all descendants of Jews or of Moors. And he who is
+not--he who is not----"
+
+Here he stopped, and after a brief pause affirmed resolutely, "He who is
+not, is the descendant of a priest!"
+
+On the Peninsula the traditional odium for the Jew which still separates
+the population of Majorca into two antagonistic races, does not exist.
+Pablo Valls became furious discussing his fatherland. Openly orthodox
+Jews did not exist there. The last synagogue had been dissolved
+centuries ago. The Jews had all been "converted" en masse, and the
+recalcitrant were burned by the Inquisition. The Chuetas of the present
+day were the most fervent Catholics of Majorca, bringing to their
+profession of faith a Semitic zealotry. They prayed aloud, they made
+priests of their sons, they sought influence to place their daughters in
+the convents, they figured as moneyed people among the partisans of the
+most conservative ideas, and yet, against them lay the same antipathy as
+in former centuries, and they lived ostracized, with no allies in any
+social class.
+
+"For four hundred and fifty years we have had the water of baptism on
+our pates," Captain Valls continued in loud tones, "and yet we are still
+the accursed, the reprobates, as before the conversion. Isn't that
+queer? The Chuetas! Look out for them! Bad people! In Majorca there are
+two Catholicisms--one for our people, and another for the rest."
+
+Then with the concentrated odium gathered from centuries of persecution,
+the sailor said, referring to his racial brethren, "They are doing their
+best through cowardice, through too great love for the island, for this
+little rock, this Roqueta on which we were born; to not forsake it, they
+became Christians, and now, when they are really Christians at heart
+they are paid for it with kicks. Had they continued to be Jews,
+dispersing throughout the world as others have done, perhaps at this
+moment they would be great personages, bankers to kings, instead of
+sticking in their little shops on 'the street,' making silver hand
+bags."
+
+Himself a skeptic, he scorned or attacked them all--the Jews faithful to
+their old beliefs, the converts, the Catholics, the Mussulmans, with
+whom he had lived on his journeys to the coasts of Africa and in the
+ports of Asia Minor. Again he would be dominated by an atavistic
+tenderness, displaying a certain religious respect toward his race.
+
+He was a Semite; he declared it with pride, beating his chest: "The
+greatest people in the world!"
+
+"We were a lousy, starving crowd when we were in Asia, because there was
+no one in that land with whom to traffic, nor to whom we could loan our
+money. But no race has given the human flock more actual shepherds than
+has ours, which shall yet be for centuries and centuries masters of men.
+Moses, Jesus, and Mohammed are from my country. Three strong champions,
+eh, caballeros? And now we have given the world a fourth prophet, also
+of our race and of our blood, only that this one has two faces and two
+names. On the obverse he is called Rothschild, and is the captain of all
+who lay up money; on the reverse he is Carl Marx--the apostle of those
+who wish to wrest it from the rich!"
+
+The history of the race on the island Valls condensed after his fashion
+into brief words. The Jews were many, very many in former times. Nearly
+all the commerce was in their hands; most of the ships were theirs. The
+Febrers, and other Christian potentates, had no objection to being their
+associates. The ancient times might be called the times of liberty;
+persecution and cruelty were relatively modern. Jews were the treasurers
+of kings, doctors, the courtiers of the courts of the Peninsula. When
+religious feuds broke out, the richest and most astute Hebrews of the
+island were wise enough to become converted in time, voluntarily, mixing
+with the native families, and sinking their origin into oblivion. These
+new Catholics were the very ones who, later on, with the fervor of the
+neophyte, had instigated the persecution against their former brethren.
+The Chuetas of the present time, the only Majorcans of recognized
+Jewish origin, were the descendants of the last to be converted, the
+offspring of the families persecuted by the Inquisition.
+
+To be a Chueta, to spring from the street of the Silversmiths, which by
+antonomasia is called "the street," is the greatest disgrace which can
+happen to a Majorcan. In vain had revolutions been made in Spain, in
+vain had liberal laws been passed which recognized the equality of all
+Spaniards; the Chueta when he passed on to the Peninsula was a citizen
+like other people, but in Majorca he was a reprobate, a kind of pest who
+could marry none but his own kindred.
+
+Valls commented ironically upon the social order, resembling the steps
+of a stairway, in which the different classes of the island had dwelt
+for centuries and where many steps still remained intact. Aloft, on the
+vortex, the proud butifarras; then the nobles, the caballeros; afterward
+the mossons; trailing along behind these came the merchants, the
+artisans, and finally the cultivators of the soil. Here opened an
+enormous gap in the order established by God in creating the classes; a
+vast open space which each one could people according to his caprice.
+Undoubtedly after the Majorcan nobles and plebeians came hogs, dogs,
+asses, cats, rats, and, at the tail of all these beasts of the Lord, the
+despised citizen of "the street," the Chueta, the pariah of the island.
+It mattered nothing if he were rich, like the brother of Captain Valls,
+or intellectual, like others. Many Chuetas who attained the dignity of
+state functionaries, army officers, magistrates, landed proprietors on
+the Peninsula, found on returning to Majorca that the meanest beggar
+considered himself superior to them, and on the slightest excuse poured
+insults upon their persons and their families. The isolation of this bit
+of Spain, surrounded by the sea, served to keep intact the spirit of
+earlier epochs.
+
+In vain the Chuetas, fleeing from this odium which flourished despite
+the new era of progress, exaggerated their devotion to Catholicism with
+a blind and vehement faith, largely influenced by the fear absorbed into
+their souls and into their flesh during centuries of persecution. In
+vain they continued in imitation of their forefathers to recite their
+prayers in loud voices in their houses so that passersby might hear, and
+they cooked their food in their windows so that all should see that they
+ate pork. The traditional barriers could not be overcome. The Catholic
+Church, which entitles itself universal, was cruel and harsh with the
+Jews on the island, repaying their adherence with disdainful repulsion.
+The sons of the Chuetas who desired to become priests found no room in
+the seminary. The convents closed their doors against every novice
+proceeding from "the street." On the Peninsula the daughters of Chuetas
+married men of distinction and men of great fortune, but on the island
+they scarcely ever found one who would accept their hand and their
+riches.
+
+"Bad people!" continued Valls sarcastically. "They are industrious, they
+lay up money, they live at peace in the bosoms of their families, they
+are more fervent Catholics even than the rest, but they are Chuetas;
+there must be something the matter with them to be so despised!
+Something there must be about them, do you understand? Something! He who
+wishes to know more let him find out for himself."
+
+The seaman laughingly told of the poor peasants from the country who
+until a few years ago declared in good faith that the Chuetas were
+covered with grease and had tails, taking advantage of an occasion when
+they found a lonely child from "the street" to disrobe him and convince
+themselves whether the story of the caudal appendage were true.
+
+"And how about what happened to my brother?" continued Valls. "To my
+sainted brother Benito, who prays aloud, and who is so devout that one
+might think he were going to actually devour the images?"
+
+They all remembered the case of Don Benito Valls, and they laughed
+heartily, since his brother was ever the first to jest about the matter.
+The rich Chueta had found himself owner, on settling some accounts, of a
+house and valuable lands in a town in the interior of the island. On
+taking possession of the new property the most prudent citizens had
+given him good advice. He would be allowed to visit his property during
+the day, but as for spending the night in the house, never! There was no
+record of a Chueta having slept in the pueblo. Don Benito paid no
+attention to this counsel and he spent a night on his property, but
+scarcely had he gotten into bed than the domestics fled. When the master
+of the house had slept long enough he sprang from his couch. Not even
+the faintest ray of light entered through the crevices. He thought he
+must have slept at least twelve hours, yet it was still dark. He opened
+a window and his head bumped cruelly; he tried to open the door, but he
+could not. While he had been asleep the neighbors had walled up all the
+windows and doors, and the Chueta had to make his escape by way of the
+roof, to the accompaniment of shouts of laughter from the people who
+thus rejoiced over their work. This joke was merely by way of warning;
+if he persisted in going counter to the customs of the town, some night
+he would awake to find the house in flames.
+
+"Very amusing, but very barbarous!" added the captain. "My brother! A
+good soul! A saint!"
+
+They all laughed at this. He maintained friendly relations with his
+brother, although with some frigidity, and he made no secret of the
+grievances he had against him. Captain Valls was the bohemian of the
+family, ever on the high seas or in distant lands, leading the life of a
+gay bachelor. He had enough money on which to live. On the death of his
+father his brother had taken charge of the business of the house,
+defrauding him of many thousands of dollars.
+
+"The same as the Christians of olden times!" Pablo hastened to add. "In
+matters of inheritance there is neither race nor creed. Money recognizes
+no religion."
+
+The interminable persecutions suffered by his ancestors infuriated
+Valls. Advantage was taken of every circumstance for trampling under
+foot the people of "the street." When the peasants had grievances
+against the nobles or when foreigners descended in armed bands upon the
+citizens of Palma, the difficulty was always settled by a joint attack
+upon the ward of the Chuetas, killing those who did not flee, and
+looting their shops. If a Majorcan batallion received orders to march to
+Spain in case of war, the soldiers mutinied, broke out of their barracks
+and sacked "the street." When the reaction followed the revolutions in
+Spain, the royalists, to celebrate their triumph, assaulted the
+silversmiths' shops of the Chuetas, took possession of their riches, and
+made bonfires of their furniture, hurling even their crucifixes into the
+flames. Crucifixes belonging to old Jews, that, of course, must be
+false!
+
+"And who are the people of 'the street'?" shouted the captain.
+"Everybody knows; those who have noses and eyes like mine; and there are
+many who are flat-nosed and present nothing of the common type. On the
+other hand, how many are there who pretend to be caballeros of
+antiquity, of proud nobility, with faces like Abraham and Jacob?"
+
+There existed a list of suspicious surnames for identifying the genuine
+Chuetas, but these same surnames were borne by long-time Christians, and
+it was additional caprice which separated one from the other. Only the
+descendants of those families beaten or burned by the Inquisition had
+remained permanently marked by popular odium. The famous catalogue of
+surnames was made up undoubtedly from the autos of the Holy Offices.
+
+"A joy indeed to become a Christian! The ancestors frizzled in the
+bonfire, and the descendants singled out and cursed for centuries upon
+centuries!"
+
+The captain dropped his sarcastic tone upon recalling the harrowing
+story of the Chuetas of Majorca. His cheeks flamed and his eyes flashed
+with the effulgence of hatred. That they might dwell in tranquillity
+they had been converted en masse in the Fifteenth Century. There was not
+a Jew left on the island, but the Inquisition must do something to
+justify its existence, so there were burnings of persons suspected of
+Judaism in the Paseo del Borne, spectacles organized, as said the
+chroniclers of the epoch, "in accordance with the most brilliant
+functions celebrated by the triumph of the Faith in Madrid, Palermo, and
+Lima." Some Chuetas were burned, others were beaten, others went out to
+their shame wearing nothing but hoods painted as devils and with green
+candles in their hands; but all of them had their goods confiscated and
+the Holy Tribunal was enriched. After that, those suspected of Judaism,
+those who had no clerical protector, were forced to go to mass in the
+Cathedral with their families every Sunday under the command and custody
+of an alguacil, who herded them as if they were a flock of sheep, put
+mantles on them so that no one could mistake them, and thus he took
+them to the temple amidst catcalls, insults, and stonings from the
+devout populace. This happened every Sunday, and in this unceasing
+weekly torment fathers died, sons grew into manhood, begetting new
+Chuetas destined to public contumely.
+
+A few families gathered together to flee from this degrading slavery.
+They met in an orchard near the sea wall, and were counselled and guided
+by one Rafael Valls, a valorous man of great culture.
+
+"I don't know for sure that he was a relative of mine," said the
+captain. "It was more than two centuries ago; but if he were not, I wish
+he had been. It would be an honor to have him for an ancestor.
+Adelante!"
+
+Pablo Valls had collected papers and books of the epoch of persecutions,
+and he talked of them as if they had occurred but yesterday.
+
+"Men, women and children took passage on an English ship, but a storm
+drove them back on the coast of Majorca, and the fugitives were taken
+prisoners. This was during the reign of Charles II, the Bewitched. To
+wish to flee from Majorca where they were so well treated, and more than
+that, on a ship manned by Protestants! They were held three years in
+prison, and the confiscations of their property, yielded a million
+duros. Besides this, the Sacred Tribunal counted upon more millions
+wrested from former victims, and constructed a palace in Palma, the
+finest and most luxurious possessed by the Inquisition in any land. The
+prisoners were subjected to torment until they confessed what their
+judges desired, and on the seventh of March, 1691, the executions began.
+That event has as its historian such a one as no other part of the world
+has ever known, Father Garau, a pious Jesuit, a fount of theological
+science, rector of the Seminary of Mount Sion, where the Institute now
+stands, author of the book 'The Faith Triumphant,' a literary monument
+which I would not sell for all the money in the world. Here it is; it
+accompanies me everywhere."
+
+Out of his pocket he drew "The Faith Triumphant," a small book bound in
+parchment, of antique and reddish print, which he fondled with a
+ferocious grip.
+
+"Blessed Father Garau! Placed in charge of exhorting and encouraging the
+criminals, he had seen it all at close range, and he told of the
+thousands and thousands of spectators who flocked from many towns on the
+island to witness the festival, of the solemn masses attended by the
+thirty-eight criminals destined for the burning, of the luxurious
+trappings of caballeros and alguaciles mounted on prancing chargers at
+the head of the procession, and of the 'piety of the multitude, which
+burst into cries of pity when a highwayman was led to the gallows, but
+which remained dumb in the presence of these God-forgotten reprobates.'
+On that day, according to the learned Jesuit, the temper of soul of
+those who believe in God and of those who do not was displayed. The
+priests marched courageously, uttering shouts of exhortation
+unceasingly, while the miserable criminals were pale, exhausted and
+fainting. It was easy enough to see on which side lay celestial aid!
+
+"The condemned were conducted to the foot of the Castle of Bellver for
+the final burning. The Marquis of Leganes, Governor of the Milanesado,
+chancing to be in Majorca with his fleet, took pity on the youth and
+beauty of a girl sentenced to the flames, and sued for her pardon. The
+tribunal praised the marquis for his Christian sentiments, but would not
+grant his petition.
+
+"Father Garau was the one in charge of the conversion of Rafael Valls,
+'a man of some letters, but one in whom the devil inspired an
+immeasurable pride, impelling him to curse those who condemned him to
+death, and refusing to reconcile himself with the Church.' But, as the
+Jesuit said, such boastfulness, the work of the Evil One, fails in the
+presence of danger, and cannot compare to the serenity of the priest who
+exhorts the criminal.
+
+"The Jesuit father was a hero far from the flames! Now you shall hear
+with what evangelical pity he relates the details of the death of my
+ancestor."
+
+Opening the book at a marked page, he read impressively: "'As long as
+nothing but the smoke reached him, he stood like a statue; when the
+flames came, he defended himself, he tried to shield himself, he
+resisted until he could bear no more. He was as fat as a sucking pig,
+and, being on fire inside in such a way that even before the flames
+reached him, his flesh was becoming consumed like half-burnt wood, and
+bursting in his middle, his entrails fell out like a Judas. _Crepuit
+medius difusa sunt oninia viscera ejus_.'"
+
+This barbaric description always produced an effect. The laughter
+ceased, countenances darkened, and Captain Valls looked around with his
+amber-colored eyes, breathing satisfaction, as if he had achieved a
+triumph, while the small volume slipped back into his pocket.
+
+Once when Febrer figured among his hearers, the sailor said to him
+rancorously, "You were there, too; that is, not yourself, but one of
+your ancestors, one of the Febrers, who carried the green flag as the
+chief ensign of the Tribunal; and the ladies of your family were in a
+carriage at the foot of the castle to witness the burning."
+
+Jaime, annoyed by this reminder, shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"Things of the past! Who ever remembers what is dead and gone? No one
+but some crazy fellow like you! Come, Pablo, tell us something about
+your travels--about your conquests of women."
+
+The captain growled. Things of the past! The soul of the Roqueta was
+still the same as in those olden times. Odium of the Jewish religion and
+race still endured. For a good reason they dwelt apart, on this bit of
+ground isolated by the sea.
+
+But Valls soon recovered his good humor, and, like all men who have
+knocked about the world, he could not resist the invitation to relate
+his past.
+
+Febrer, another vagabond like himself, enjoyed listening to him. They
+both had led a turbulent, cosmopolitan existence, different from the
+monotonous life of the islanders; they both had squandered money
+prodigally, but Valls, with the active genius of his race, had known how
+to earn as much as he had spent, and now, ten years older than Jaime, he
+had enough to amply supply his modest bachelor needs. He still engaged
+in commerce occasionally, and he carried out commissions for friends who
+wrote to him from distant ports.
+
+Of his eventful history as a mariner, Febrer disregarded the stories of
+hunger and storms, and only felt curiosity over his escapades in the
+great cosmopolitan ports where congregated the exotic vices and the
+women of all races. Valls, in his youth, when he was in command of his
+father's ships, had known women of every class and color, often finding
+himself involved in sailors' orgies, which ended in floods of whisky and
+stabbing affrays.
+
+"Pablo, tell us of your love affairs in Jaffa, when the Moors came near
+killing you."
+
+Listening to him Febrer laughed loudly, while the sailor said that
+Jaime was a good boy, worthy of a better fate, with no defect other than
+that of being a butifarra somewhat given to the family prejudices.
+
+When he stepped into Febrer's carriage on the road to Valldemosa,
+ordering his own to return to Palma, he pushed back the soft felt hat
+which he wore on all occasions, the crown crushed in, and the brim
+tilted up in front and down in the back.
+
+"Here we are! Really, didn't you expect me? I heard the news. I've been
+told all about it, and since there is to be a family gathering, let it
+be complete."
+
+Febrer pretended not to understand. The carriage entered Valldemosa,
+stopping in the vicinity of La Cartuja before a dwelling of modern
+construction. When the two friends opened the garden gate they saw
+approaching them a gentleman with white whiskers, leaning on a cane. It
+was Don Benito Valls. He greeted Febrer with a weak, hollow voice,
+cutting short his words at intervals to gasp for air. He spoke humbly,
+laying great stress upon the honor which Febrer showed him by accepting
+his invitation.
+
+"And how about me?" asked the captain, with a malicious smile. "Am I
+nobody? Aren't you glad to see me?"
+
+Don Benito was glad to see him. He said so several times, but his eyes
+revealed uneasiness. His brother inspired him with a certain fear. What
+a tongue he had! It were better that they should not meet.
+
+"We came together," continued the mariner. "Hearing that Jaime was
+breakfasting here, I invited myself, sure of giving you a great joy.
+These family reunions are delightful."
+
+They had entered the house. It was simply decorated. The furniture was
+modern and vulgar. Some chromos and a few hideous paintings
+representing scenes in Valldemosa and Miramar hung on the walls.
+
+Catalina, Don Benito's daughter, came down hurriedly. Her bosom was
+besprinkled with rice powder, revealing the haste with which she had
+given the last touch to her toilette on seeing the carriage arrive.
+
+Jaime had opportunity to study her appearance for the first time. He had
+not been mistaken in his conjecture. She was tall, with pale brown
+coloring, black eyebrows, eyes like drops of ink, and a light down on
+her lip and on her temples. Her youthful figure was full and firm,
+announcing a greater expansion for the future, as in all the women of
+her race. She seemed of a sweet and gentle disposition, a good
+companion, not likely to be in the way during the journey of a common
+life. She kept her eyes lowered, and her face flushed as she greeted
+Jaime. Her manner, her furtive glances, revealed the respect, the
+adoration of one who is abashed in the presence of a being whom she
+considers her superior.
+
+The captain caressed his niece with a certain familiar-it, adopting that
+air of a gay old man with which he spoke to the common girls of Palma in
+the small hours of the night in some restaurant on the Paseo del Borne.
+Ah! A smart girl! And how pretty she was! It seemed incredible that she
+came of a family of homely people!
+
+Don Benito directed them all into the dining-room. Breakfast had been
+waiting for some time; in this house old customs were kept up; twelve
+o'clock sharp! They took their seats around the table, and Febrer, who
+sat next to the host, was annoyed by his heaving respiration, by the
+sharp gasps which interrupted his words.
+
+In the silence which often reigns at the beginning of a dinner the
+wheezing of his unsound lungs was painfully noticeable. The rich Chueta
+pursed his lips, rounding them like the mouth of a trumpet, and drew in
+the air with a disagreeable rattle. Like all sick people he was eager to
+talk, and his sentences were long drawn out from a combination of
+stammering and pauses which left him with palpitating chest and eyes
+aloft, as if he were about to die of asphyxia. An atmosphere of
+uneasiness pervaded the dining-room. Febrer glanced at Don Benito in
+alarm, as if expecting to see him fall dead from his chair. His daughter
+and the captain, more accustomed to the spectacle, displayed
+indifference.
+
+"It is asthma--Don Jaime," laboriously explained the sick man. "In
+Valldemosa--I am better--In Palma--I would die."
+
+The daughter took advantage of the opportunity to put in her voice,
+which was like that of a timid little nun, contrasting strangely with
+her ardent, oriental eyes.
+
+"Yes, papa is better here."
+
+"You are more quiet in Valldemosa," added the captain, "and you commit
+fewer sins."
+
+Febrer pictured to himself the torment of spending his life near that
+broken bellows. By good luck he might die soon. An annoyance of some
+months, but it did not alter his resolution of becoming one of the
+family. Courage!
+
+The asthmatic, in his verbose mania, spoke of Jaime's ancestors, of the
+illustrious Febrers, the finest and noblest caballeros of the island.
+
+"I had the honor--of being a great friend--of your--grandfather, Don
+Horacio."
+
+Febrer looked at him in astonishment. It was a lie! Everyone in the
+island knew his grandfather, and he exchanged a few words with them all,
+but ever maintaining a gravity which imposed respect in others without
+alienating them; but as for being his friend! Don Horacio may have had
+business relations with the Chueta relating to loans needed for propping
+up his fortune in its decline.
+
+"I also knew--your father--very well," continued Don Benito, encouraged
+by Febrer's silence. "I worked for him--when he was running--for deputy.
+Those were--different times--from these! I was young--and had not--the
+fortune which I have now. Then I figured--among the 'reds.'"
+
+Captain Vails interrupted him with a laugh. His brother was a
+conservative now and a member of all the societies in Palma.
+
+"Yes, I am," shouted the sick man, choking. "I like order--I like the
+old customs--and I think it right--for those who have--something to lose
+to be--in command. As for religion? Ah, religion! For that I would--give
+my life."
+
+He pressed a hand against his breast, breathing painfully, as if choking
+with enthusiasm. He fixed aloft his pain-clouded eyes, adoring with a
+respect inspired by fear the sacred institution which had burned his
+forefathers alive.
+
+"Pay no attention--to Pablo," he gasped, turning to Febrer when he had
+recovered breath. "You know him--a wild-headed fellow--a republican; a
+man who might be rich--but he won't have two pesetas--in his pocket--in
+his old age."
+
+"Why not? Because you'll get them away from me?"
+
+After this rude interruption by the sailor silence fell. Catalina looked
+alarmed, as if she feared that the noisy scenes which she had often
+witnessed when the two brothers fell into an argument would be
+reproduced in Febrer's presence.
+
+Don Benito shrugged his shoulders and addressed his conversation to
+Jaime. His brother was crazy; he had a good head, a heart of gold, but
+he was mad, stark mad! With his exalted ideas, and his loud talk in the
+cafes, it was largely his fault that decent people felt a certain
+prejudice against--that they spoke ill of----
+
+The old man accompanied his mutilated expressions with gestures of
+humility, avoiding the word Chueta and refusing to name the famous
+street.
+
+The captain, flushing with contrition for his violence, desired his
+hasty words to be forgotten, and he ate voraciously, keeping his head
+lowered.
+
+His niece smiled at his good appetite. Whenever he ate at their table he
+amazed them with the capacity of his stomach.
+
+"It is because I know what hunger is," said the sailor with a kind of
+pride. "I have suffered real hunger, the kind of hunger that makes men
+think of the flesh of their companions."
+
+This reminiscence spurred him on to a vivid relation of his maritime
+adventures, telling of his younger days when he had been a supernumerary
+aboard a frigate which sailed to the coasts of the Pacific. When he
+insisted upon being a sailor, his father, the elder Valls, originator of
+the fortune of the house, had shipped him in a galley of his own which
+freighted sugar from Havana, but that was not a sailor's life because
+the cook reserved the best dishes for him; the captain dared not give
+him an order, seeing in him the son of the ship-owner. At this rate he
+would never have become a real sailor, rugged and expert. With the
+tenacious energy of his race he had taken passage unknown to his father
+on a frigate bound for the Chinchas Islands for a cargo of guano, manned
+by a crew of many races--deserters from the English navy, bargemen from
+Valparaiso, Peruvian Indians, black sheep of every family, all under
+command of a Catalonian, a niggardly ruffian, more prodigal with blows
+than with the mess. The outbound trip was uneventful, but on the return
+voyage, after passing the Straits of Magellan, they ran into the calms,
+and the frigate lay motionless in the Atlantic almost a month, and the
+store of provisions soon ran low. The miser of a ship-owner had
+victualled the vessel with scandalous parsimony, and the captain, in his
+turn, had sailed with a scanty supply, appropriating to his own uses
+part of the money intended for stores.
+
+"He gave us two sea biscuits a day, and those were full of worms. At
+first I used to busy myself scrupulously, like a well brought up boy,
+carefully picking out the little beasts, but after the housecleaning,
+there was nothing left except bits of crust as thin as wafers, and I was
+starving. Then----"
+
+"Oh, uncle!" protested Catalina, guessing what he was going to say, and
+pushing away her plate and fork with a gesture of repugnance.
+
+"Then," continued the impassive sailor, "I gave up cleaning them out,
+and I swallowed them whole. It is true I ate at night--I've eaten lots
+of them, girl! Finally he only gave us one a day, and when I got back to
+Cadiz I had to go on a broth diet to get my stomach straightened out
+again."
+
+Breakfast being over, Catalina and Jaime strolled out to the garden. Don
+Benito, with the air of a kindly patriarch, told his daughter to take
+Senor Febrer and show him some exotic rose bushes which he had recently
+planted. The two brothers remained in the room, which served as an
+office, watching the couple as they sauntered through the garden and
+finally seated themselves in the shade of a tree on two willow seats.
+
+Catalina replied to her companion's questions with the timidity of a
+Christian maiden, piously educated, guessing the purpose concealed in
+his brusque gallantry. This man had come on her account, and her father
+was the first to welcome the suggestion. A settled affair! He was a
+Febrer, and she was going to tell him "yes." She thought of her youthful
+days in the college surrounded by poorer girls who took advantage of
+every opportunity to tease her, through envy of her wealth and hatred
+learned from their parents. She was a Chueta. She could only mingle with
+those of her own race, and even they, eager to ingratiate themselves
+with the enemy, played false to their own kind, lacking energy and
+cohesion for a common defense. When school let out the Chuetas marched
+in advance, by order of the nuns, to avoid insults and attacks from the
+other pupils out on the street. Even the servants who accompanied the
+girls quarreled among themselves, assuming the odium and prejudices of
+their masters. In the boys' school also the Chuetas were dismissed first
+to escape the stonings and whippings of those who had longer been
+Christians.
+
+The daughter of Valls had suffered the torments of the treacherous
+pin-prick, of the stealthy scratching, of the scissors in her braids,
+and then, on becoming a woman, the odium and scorn of her old-time
+companions had followed her, embittering the pleasures of the young
+woman despite her riches. What was the use of being elegant? On the
+avenues none but her father's friends bowed to her; in the theater her
+box was visited only by people proceeding from "the street." At last she
+must marry one of them, as her mother and her grandmothers had done.
+
+The despondency and mysticism of adolescence had urged her toward a
+monastic life. Her father almost choked with sorrow at the idea, but it
+was the call of religion, that religion to which she longed to devote
+her life! Don Benito consented to her entering a monastery in Majorca,
+where he could see his daughter every day, but not a convent would open
+its doors to her. The Superiors, tempted by the father's fortune, which
+would in the end revert to the order, showed themselves favorably
+disposed, but the monastic flock rebelled at receiving into its bosom a
+girl from "the street," and especially one who was not meek and resigned
+enough to submit to the superciliousness of the others, but rich and
+proud.
+
+When she was left thus in the world by the resistance of the nuns, she
+did not know how to plan her future, and she spent her life near her
+father, like a nurse, ignorant of what was to be her fate, turning her
+back upon the young Chuetas who fluttered about her, attracted by Don
+Benito's millions, until the noble Febrer presented himself, like a
+fairy prince, to make her his wife. How good God is! She fancied herself
+in that palace near the Cathedral, in the ward of the nobles, along
+whose silent, narrow, blue-paved streets grave canons passed during the
+dreamy afternoon hours, summoned by the chime of bells.
+
+She imagined herself in a luxurious carriage among the pines on the
+mountain of Bellver, or along the jetty, with Jaime at her side, and she
+revelled in the thought of the envious glances of her former companions,
+who would envy her, not only her wealth and her new position, but her
+possession of that man whom far-away adventures and a turbulent life had
+endowed with a certain halo of terrible seduction, dazzling and fatal to
+the quiet island senoritas. Jaime Febrer! Catalina had always seen him
+at a distance, but when she whiled away her monotonous hours with
+incessant novel reading, certain characters, the most interesting on
+account of their adventures and daring, always reminded her of that
+noble from the ward of the Cathedral who dashed about the world with
+elegant women dissipating his fortune. Then, suddenly, her father had
+spoken of this remarkable personage, giving her to understand that he
+was going to offer her his name, and with it the glory of his ancestors,
+who had been friends of kings! She did not know whether it were love or
+gratitude, but a wave of tenderness which dimmed her eyes drew her to
+the man. Ah! How she would love him! She listened to his words as to a
+sweet melody, not knowing what to say, intoxicated by its music,
+thinking at the same time of the future which he had suddenly opened to
+her, a rising sun bursting through the clouds.
+
+Then, making an effort, she concentrated her mind and listened to
+Febrer, who was telling her about great foreign cities, of rows of
+luxurious carriages filled with women arrayed in the latest fashions, of
+broad stone steps in front of theaters down which came cascades of
+diamonds, ostrich plumes and nude shoulders, trying to place himself on
+a level of thought with the girl to allure her with these descriptions
+of feminine glory.
+
+Jaime said no more, but Catalina guessed the purpose which had inspired
+these words. She, the unhappy girl from "the street," the Chueta,
+accustomed to seeing her people cringing and trembling beneath the
+weight of traditional odium, would visit these cities, would figure in
+the procession of riches, would have opened to her doors which she had
+always found closed, and she would pass through them leaning on the arm
+of a man who had ever seemed to her the personification of all
+terrestrial grandeur.
+
+"When shall I see all that?" murmured Catalina with hypocritical
+humility. "I am condemned to live on the island, I am a poor girl who
+has never harmed anybody, and yet I have suffered great annoyances--I
+must be repulsive!"
+
+Febrer rushed down the pathway which this feminine cleverness had opened
+for him. "Repulsive! No, Catalina." He had come to Valldemosa solely to
+see her, to speak to her. He offered her a new life. All these things at
+which she marveled she could experience and taste with but a word. Would
+she marry him?
+
+Catalina, who had been waiting for an hour for this proposal, turned
+pale, tremulous with emotion. To hear it from his lips! She sat still
+for some time without answering, and at last stammered out a few words.
+It was a joy, the greatest she had ever known, but a well-educated girl
+like herself must not answer at once.
+
+"I? Oh, I must have time! This is such a surprise!"
+
+Jaime wished to insist, but at that very instant Captain Valls appeared
+in the garden, calling him vociferously. They must return to Palma; he
+had already given the driver orders to hitch up. Febrer protested
+stubbornly. But by what right did that busybody mix into his affairs?
+
+Don Benito's presence cut off his protest. He was puffing painfully,
+with his face congested. The captain stirred about with nervous
+hostility, protesting at the coachman's delay. It was evident the
+brothers had been having a violent discussion. The elder one looked at
+his daughter, he looked at Jaime, and he seemed content in the belief
+that the two had reached an understanding.
+
+Don Benito and Catalina accompanied them as far as the carriage. The
+asthmatic clasped Febrer's hand between his own with a vehement
+pressure. This was his house, and he himself a true friend desirous of
+serving him. If he needed his assistance he could dispose of him as he
+wished, just as if he were one of the family! He mentioned Don Horacio
+once again, recalling their former friendship. Then he invited Febrer to
+breakfast with them two days afterward, without remembering to include
+his brother.
+
+"Yes, I will be here," said Jaime, giving Catalina a look which made her
+redden.
+
+When the garden gate, behind which stood the father and daughter waving
+their hands, was lost to view, Captain Valls burst into a noisy laugh.
+
+"So it seems that you would like to have me for an uncle of yours?" he
+questioned, ironically.
+
+Febrer, who was furious at the intervention of his friend and the
+rudeness with which he had forced him to leave the house, gave
+expression to his choler. What business was it of his? By what right did
+he venture to meddle in his affairs? He was old enough not to need
+advisers.
+
+"Halt!" said the sailor, leaning back in his seat and extending his
+hands near the musketeer's hat thrust on the back of his head. "Halt! my
+young gallant! I meddle in the affair because I am one of the family. I
+believe this concerns my niece; at least, so it looks to me."
+
+"And what if I wished to marry her? Perhaps Catalina would think well of
+it; perhaps her father would consent."
+
+"I don't say that he would not, but I am her uncle, and her uncle
+protests, and he says that this marriage is an absurdity."
+
+Jaime looked at him in astonishment. An absurdity to marry a Febrer!
+Possibly he aspired to more for his niece?
+
+"An absurdity for them and an absurdity for you," declared Valls. "Have
+you forgotten where you live? You can be my friend, the friend of the
+Chueta, Pablo Valls, he whom you see in the cafe, in the Casino, and
+whom folks consider half crazy, but as for marrying a woman of my
+family!"
+
+The sailor laughed as he thought of this union. Jaime's relatives would
+be furious with him, and would never speak to him again. They would be
+more tolerant with him if he were to commit a murder. His aunt, the
+Popess Juana, would scream as if she had witnessed a sacrilege. He would
+lose everything, and his niece, forgotten and tranquil until then, would
+give up the tediousness of her home, monotonous and sad, for an infernal
+life of misery, humiliation, and scorn.
+
+"No, I say again; her uncle opposes it."
+
+Even the people of the lower classes who declared themselves enemies of
+the rich would be indignant at seeing a butifarra marry a Chueta. The
+traditional atmosphere of the island must be respected, under penalty of
+death, as his brother Benito would die, for lack of air. It was
+dangerous to try to change all at once the work of centuries. Even those
+who came from outside, free of prejudices, after a short time suffered
+this repulsion of race, which seemed to permeate the very atmosphere.
+
+"Once," continued Valls, "a Belgian couple came and established
+themselves on the island, bearing letters to me from a friend in
+Antwerp. I was attentive to them. I did all manner of favors for them.
+'Be careful,' I told them; 'remember that I am a Chueta, and the Chuetas
+are very bad people.' The woman laughed. What barbarity! What
+out-of-date notions prevail here on the island! There were Jews
+everywhere and they were people like any other. After a while we met
+less frequently, they saw more of other people; at the end of a year
+they met me on the street and they glanced about in every direction
+before bowing to me; and now when they see me they always turn away
+their faces if they can, just the same as if they were Majorcans!"
+
+Marriage! That was for a whole lifetime. In the first few months Jaime
+would try to face the murmurings and the scorn, but time runs on, and an
+odium dating from centuries does not wear out in the course of a few
+years, and finally Febrer would regret his ostracism, he would realize
+his mistake in running counter to the traditions of the grand majority,
+and the one to suffer the consequences would be Catalina, looked upon in
+her own house as a type of ignominy. No; in matrimony no chances must be
+taken. In Spain it is indissoluble, there is no divorce, and making
+experiments results dear. That was why he had remained a bachelor.
+
+Febrer, irritated at these words, reminded Pablo of his vigorous
+propagandas against the enemies of the Chuetas.
+
+"But don't you desire the elevation of your people? Doesn't it make you
+furious to have the people from 'the street' looked upon as different
+from ordinary human beings? What could there be better than this
+marriage to combat the prejudice?"
+
+The captain waved his hands in sign of doubt. Ta! Ta! Such a marriage
+would accomplish nothing. During several epochs of tolerance and
+momentary forgetfulness some of the old-time Christians had married into
+the families of the people from "the street." There were many on the
+island who revealed this mixture by their surnames. And what was the
+result? Odium and separation continued the same. No, not the same; a
+little more tempered than in other days, but latent still. The things
+which would end this situation were the culture of the people, new
+customs, and this would be the work of years, and would not be
+accomplished by a marriage. Besides, experiments were dangerous and
+caused victims. If Jaime were eager to make the test let him choose
+someone besides his niece.
+
+Valls smiled sarcastically on seeing Jaime's negative gestures.
+
+"Are you enamored of Catalina?" he asked.
+
+The captain's amber-colored eyes, malicious and focused steadily on
+Jaime, would not permit him to lie. Enamored?... No, not enamored; but
+love was not indispensable to marriage. Catalina was agreeable, she
+would make an excellent wife, a pleasant companion.
+
+Pablo grinned even more widely.
+
+"Let us talk like good friends, like men who know life. My brother is
+even more agreeable to you. No doubt he will set himself to arranging
+your business affairs. He will shed tears when he sees how much money
+you will cost him, but he has a mania for name; he respects and adores
+the past, and he will put up with anything. But don't trust him, Jaime.
+He is the type of those Jews represented in plays, with a fat
+pocketbook, helping people out in an hour of stress, but squeezing them
+afterward. They are the ones that discredit us; I am different. When he
+gets you into his power you will regret the business deal you have
+made."
+
+Febrer looked at his friend with hostile eyes. The best thing he could
+do was to have no more to say about this matter. Pablo was a crazy
+fellow accustomed to saying whatever he thought, but he was not going
+to put up with it forever. If they were to continue friends, he must
+keep still.
+
+"Well, we'll keep still," said Valls. "But understand once and for all
+that the girl's uncle opposes you, and that he does it for your sake and
+for hers."
+
+They rode in silence the rest of the way. They separated on the Paseo
+del Borne with a frigid bow, without a handclasp.
+
+Jaime returned to his house at dusk. Mammy Antonia had placed upon a
+table in the reception hall an oil lamp whose flame seemed to make the
+darkness of the vast room even more dense.
+
+The Ivizans had just left. After breakfasting with her, and wandering
+about the city, they had waited until nightfall for the senor. They must
+spend the night on the boat; the master of the vessel wished to set sail
+before sunrise. Mammy spoke with kindly interest of these people who
+seemed to her to have come from another side of the world. "How they
+marveled at everything! They went about the island as if frightened; and
+Margalida! What a beautiful girl!"
+
+Good old Mammy Antonia gave expression to one idea, but another
+persisted in her mind, and while she followed her master to his
+dormitory she looked him over with unconcealed curiosity, eager to read
+something in his face. What had taken place in Valldemosa, Virgin del
+Lluch? What had become of that absurd plan of which the senor had told
+her during breakfast?
+
+But her master was in an ill humor, and he responded to her questions
+with brief words. He was not going to remain in the house; he would dine
+at the Casino. By the light of a lamp which but dimly illuminated his
+vast apartment, he changed his suit and brushed himself up a bit, taking
+an enormous key from Mammy's hands in order to open the door when he
+returned late at night.
+
+At nine o'clock, on his way to the Casino, he saw his friend Toni
+Clapes, the smuggler, standing in the doorway of an inn. He was a large
+man with a round, shaven face, in peasant garb. He looked like a country
+curate dressed as a farmer to spend the night in Palma. With his white
+hempen sandals, his collar minus a cravat, and his hat thrust back, he
+entered the cafes and clubs, being received with profuse manifestations
+of friendship. In the Casino the men respected him for the calm way in
+which he drew handfuls of bank notes from his pockets. A native of a
+town in the interior, he had, by force of courage and dangers, become
+chief of a mysterious industry of which everyone had heard, but whose
+secret operations remained in shadow. He had hundreds of accomplices
+ready to die for him, and an unseen fleet which sailed by night,
+unafraid of storms, putting into port at inaccessible places. The worry
+and risk of these enterprises were never reflected in his jovial
+countenance nor in his generous impulses. He only seemed downcast when
+several weeks passed without news of some vessel which had sailed from
+Algiers in stormy weather.
+
+"Lost!" he would say to his friends. "The bark and the cargo don't
+matter so much, but there were seven men in her; I've sailed that way
+myself--I must see to it that their families don't lack bread."
+
+On other occasions his gloom was only pretended, with an ironic
+wrinkling of his lips. A government craft had just seized one of his
+vessels; and everyone laughed, knowing that nearly every month Toni
+allowed some old boat carrying a few bales of tobacco to be captured, to
+satisfy his pursuers by letting them boast of a triumph. When there was
+an epidemic in African ports the authorities of the island, powerless to
+guard so extensive a coastline, sent for Toni, appealing to his
+patriotism as a Majorcan, and the contrabandist promised to cease his
+navigation for the time, or he loaded at another point to avoid
+spreading the contagion.
+
+Febrer had in this rough man, lighthearted and generous, a fraternal
+confidence. He had often told him his troubles, seeking the advice of
+his rustic astuteness. He, who would never dream of soliciting a loan
+from his friends in the Casino, in moments of stress accepted money from
+Toni which the contrabandist seemed to think no more about.
+
+They shook hands when they met. Had Febrer been at Valldemosa? Toni had
+already heard about his trip, thanks to the facility with which the most
+insignificant news circulates through the calm, monotonous atmosphere of
+a Biscayan city open-mouthed for gossip.
+
+"They are saying something more," said Toni in his provincial Majorcan
+dialect, "something that I can't believe. They say you're going to marry
+the atlota of Don Benito Valls!"
+
+Febrer, surprised that the news had circulated so quickly, dared not
+deny it. Yes, it was true. He would acknowledge it to no one but Toni.
+
+The smuggler made a gesture of repulsion, while his eyes, accustomed to
+the greatest surprises, revealed astonishment.
+
+"You are making a mistake, Jaime, a serious mistake."
+
+He spoke gravely, as if dealing with a solemn matter.
+
+The butifarra maintained with this friend a confidence which he would
+not have risked with any one else. But he was ruined, dear Toni! Nothing
+that remained in his house was his! His creditors only respected him in
+the expectation of this marriage!
+
+Toni shook his head with a negative expression. The rude native, the
+contrabandist who mocked at laws seemed stupefied by the news.
+
+"Any way you look at it, you are making a mistake. You should get out of
+your money troubles any way you can, but not this way. We, your friends,
+will help you. _You_ marry a Chueta?"
+
+He took leave of Febrer with a vigorous handclasp, as if he imagined him
+in danger of death.
+
+"You are making a mistake, think it over," he said with a reproachful
+expression. "You are making a mistake, Jaime!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+THE TYRANNY OF THE DEAD
+
+
+When Jaime got into bed three hours after midnight, he fancied he saw in
+the obscurity of his dormitory the faces of Captain Valls and Toni
+Clapes.
+
+They seemed to be speaking to him as they had been doing the afternoon
+before.
+
+"I oppose it," repeated the seaman with an ironic laugh.
+
+"Don't do it," counseled the smuggler with a grave gesture.
+
+He had spent the evening at the Casino, silent and ill humored under the
+obsession of these protests. What was there so strange and absurd about
+his plan that it should be rejected by that Chueta, notwithstanding that
+it would be an honor to his family, and by that peasant, rude and
+unscrupulous, who lived almost beyond the pale of the law?
+
+It was true that this marriage would arouse scandal and protest on the
+island; but, what of that? Had he not a right to seek his salvation by
+any means? Was it perhaps a new idea for people of his class to try to
+reestablish their fortune by means of matrimony? How about the dukes and
+high born princes who sought gold in America, giving their hand to
+daughters of millionaires of origin more censurable than that of Don
+Benito?
+
+Ah, that crazy Pablo Valls was right in a way! These alliances might be
+made in the rest of the world, but Majorca, the beloved Roqueta, still
+possessed a living soul, the soul of former centuries, filled with odium
+and prejudice. The people were such as they were born, such as their
+fathers had been, and thus they must continue to be here in this calm
+atmosphere of the island which was unstirred by new thoughts slowly
+wafted from the outside world.
+
+Jaime tossed restlessly in his couch. He was not sleepy. He thought of
+the Febrers, and of their glorious past! How it weighed upon him, like a
+chain of slavery which made his misery keener!
+
+He had spent many afternoons in the archives of his house, in the
+apartment next to the dining-room opening the bronze doors of the
+cabinets and poring over the bundles of papers by the soft light
+filtering through the Persian blinds, dusty old papers which had to be
+shaken to keep them from being devoured by moths! Barbarous letters of
+marque with erroneous and capricious profiles which had served the
+Febrers in their early commercial campaigns. The whole array of them
+would barely bring in enough to eat for two days; and yet, the family
+had fought for centuries to make itself worthy this trust. How much dead
+glory!
+
+The true fame of his family, spreading beyond the borders of the island,
+began in 1541 with the arrival of the great Emperor. An armada of three
+hundred ships manned by eighteen thousand marines assembled in the bay
+on their way to the conquest of Algiers. Here were the Spanish infantry
+commanded by Gonzaga, the Germans under the Duke of Alva, the Italians
+led by Colonna, two hundred knights of Malta at whose head marched the
+knight commander Don Priamo Febrer, the hero of the family, while the
+whole fleet sailed under the orders of the famous admiral Andrea Doria.
+
+With festivities in representation of mythologic scenes, Majorca
+welcomed the Lord of Spain and the Indies, of Germany and of Italy, who
+now happened to be suffering from gout and other infirmities. The flower
+of Castilian nobility followed the Emperor on this holy enterprise and
+was duly lodged in the dwellings of the Majorcan caballeros. The house
+of Febrer received as guest a parvenu noble, but recently risen from
+obscurity, whose achievements in a far off country, and whose visible
+riches, aroused both enthusiasm and criticism. It was the Marquis del
+Valle de Huaxaca, Hernando Cortes, who, having just conquered Mexico,
+had come with the expedition in a galley equipped at his own expense,
+accompanied by his sons Don Martin and Don Luis, eager to figure now
+among the ancient nobles of the reconquest as an equal.
+
+A royal magnificence distinguished this conqueror from distant lands,
+this possessor of fabulous wealth. Three enormous emeralds valued at
+over a hundred thousand ducats decorated the bridge of his galley; one
+was cut in the form of a flower, another in the figure of a bird, and
+another was shaped like a bell, with an enormous pearl serving as a
+clapper. He was attended by persons who had been his companions
+overseas, and who had adopted exotic customs; slender hidalgos of sickly
+color who silently whiled away the time lighting bundles of herbs
+resembling pieces of rope, and puffing smoke out of their mouths like
+demons who were on fire within.
+
+The long line of Febrer's grandmothers had handed down from generation
+to generation a great uncut diamond, a souvenir from the heroic captain
+given in return for their gracious hospitality. The precious stone was
+described in the family documents, but Don Horacio's grandfather had not
+had the pleasure of seeing it, since it had disappeared during the
+course of centuries, as had so many riches swept away by the financial
+troubles of an ostentatious house.
+
+The Febrers prepared refreshments for the armada, in the name of
+Majorca, defraying most of the expenses themselves. In order to arouse
+the Emperor's appreciation of the abundance and productiveness of the
+island, this "refreshment" included a hundred beeves, two hundred sheep,
+hundreds of pairs of chicken and peacocks, hundreds of cuarteras of oil
+and flour, hundreds of cuarterones of wine, more hundreds of cuarterolas
+of cheese, capers, olives, twenty bottles of arrayan, and four quintales
+of white wax. Moreover, the Febrers resident on the island and not
+members of the Order of Malta, embarked in the squadron with two hundred
+Majorcan gentlemen, eager to conquer Algiers, that nest of pirates. The
+three hundred galleys sailed out of the bay, their pennants streaming,
+accompanied by salutes discharged from cannons and bombards, cheered by
+the multitude crowded upon the walls. Never had the Emperor gathered
+together so imposing a fleet.
+
+It was October. The able Doria was in bad humor. According to him there
+existed no other safe ports in the Mediterranean than "June, July,
+August and--Mahon." The Emperor had delayed too long in Tyrol and Italy.
+The Pope, Paul III, when he came out to meet him at Lucca, had
+prophesied misfortunes due to the lateness of the season. The expedition
+disembarked on the shore of Hama. The knight commander Febrer, with his
+caballeros of Malta marched in the vanguard, sustaining incessant
+onslaughts from the Turks. The army took possession of the heights
+surrounding Algiers and began the siege. Then Doria's predictions were
+fulfilled. A frightful storm arose with all the violence of the African
+winter. The troops, without shelter, drenched to the bone during the
+night of the torrential rain, were stiff with cold. A furious wind
+compelled the men to lie flat upon the ground. At sunrise, the Turks,
+taking advantage of this situation, fell suddenly upon the army, which
+became demoralized and scattered, but the knight commander Priamo, a
+demon of war, insensible alike to either cold or fire, vigorous,
+aggressive and untiring, restrained the advance with a handful of his
+caballeros. Spaniards and Germans rallied. Pursued by the besiegers the
+Turks had to fall back to the very walls of Algiers, and Don Priamo
+Febrer, wounded in the face and in the leg, dragged himself to the city
+gates and thrust his dagger deep into one of its panels in testimony of
+his attack.
+
+In another sally against the Moors, the onset was so furious that the
+Italians were driven back, the Germans following their example, and the
+Emperor, flaming with fury at seeing his favorite soldiers in retreat,
+unsheathed his sword, called for his colors, set spurs to his war-horse,
+and shouted to the brilliant retinue of caballeros that followed him:
+"Forward, gentlemen! If you see me fall with the flag, save it before
+you do me!" The Turks fled before the charge of this squadron of iron. A
+Febrer from the island, entitled "the rich," a remote ancestor of
+Jaime's, had twice rushed in between the Emperor and the enemy, saving
+his life. At the exit of a narrow defile the fire from the Turkish
+culverins decimated the cavalry. The Duke of Alva grasped the bridle of
+his monarch's horse. "Sire, your life is more important than a victory!"
+and the Emperor, growing calmer, turned back, and with a stately gesture
+of gratitude re moved the gold chain from about his neck and hung it
+upon the shoulders of Febrer.
+
+Meanwhile, the storm wrecked one hundred and sixty vessels, and the
+remainder of the fleet was forced to take refuge behind Cape Matifou.
+The majority of the nobles agreed upon an immediate retreat. Hernando
+Cortes, the Count of Alcaudete, governor of Oran, and the Majorcan
+gentlemen, with the Febrers at their head, begged the Emperor to save
+himself and to let the army carry forward the expedition alone. At last
+a retreat was decided upon, and over mountain summits and through
+rain-swollen streams, they achieved their sorrowful purpose, continually
+accosted by the enemy, leaving killed and prisoners in their wake. In
+the teeth of the storm those who were able boarded the ship; the raging
+sea swallowed up nine more vessels, and the Majorcan galleys sailed
+mournfully into the bay of Palma convoying the Emperor who left for the
+Peninsula without landing in Majorca. The Febrers returned to their
+house covered with renown even in defeat; one bearing the golden
+testimonial of the Caesar's friendship; the other, the knight commander,
+lying on a litter, cursing like a pagan because the blockading of
+Algiers had been discontinued.
+
+Priamo Febrer! Jaime could not think of him without sympathy and
+curiosity aroused by the tales he had heard in his youth. His was the
+heroic, and also the unconventional soul of the family. The ancient
+dames of the house never mentioned his name. On hearing it they lowered
+their eyes and blushed. Although a soldier of the church, a holy knight
+who had taken the vow of chastity on entering the Order, he always
+carried women in his galley--Christian women ransomed from the
+Mussulman, who were in no haste to return to their homes, or else
+infidels captured on his audacious buccaneering expeditions.
+
+When it came to a division of the booty, he looked with indifference
+upon the pile of riches, leaving them for the Grand Master of the Order;
+he was only interested in appropriating the women. If threatened with
+excommunication, he laughed impishly in the faces of the ecclesiastics
+of the Order. If the Grand Master sent for him to administer a reproof
+for his carnality, Febrer would straighten himself arrogantly, reminding
+him of the glorious victories on the sea which the Cross of Malta owed
+to him.
+
+Some of his letters, bundles of yellow paper with reddish characters,
+faded and indistinct, were written in a style which revealed the knight
+commander's lack of learning. He expressed himself with soldierly
+fluency, mixing religious phrases with the most shameless expressions.
+
+His name was known along the whole Mediterranean coast where dwelt the
+infidels. The Mohammedans feared him as they feared the devil; Moorish
+mothers hushed their babes with threat of the knight commander Febrer.
+Dragut, the great Turkish corsair, considered him the only rival worthy
+of his valor. Each feared and respected the other, and, after several
+engagements in which both were wounded, they endeavored to avoid
+meeting, either on land or sea.
+
+One day Dragut, on visiting a galley of his fleet anchored off Algiers,
+found Priamo Febrer, half naked, chained to a seat with an oar in his
+hands.
+
+"Casualties of war!" exclaimed Dragut.
+
+"Casualties of fortune!" replied the knight commander.
+
+They clasped hands and said no more. One did not offer favor, nor did
+the other ask for mercy. The people of Algiers flocked to see the
+"Maltese Demon," now become a slave and fastened to a bench, but when
+they beheld him as fierce and glowering as a captive eaglet they dared
+not insult him. The Order paid as ransom for its heroic warrior hundreds
+of slaves, ships, and cargoes, as if he were a prince. Years afterward,
+Don Priamo, upon entering a Maltese galley found the intrepid Dragut in
+turn chained to a rower's seat. The scene was repeated in reverse, with
+no sign of surprise from either, as if the event were perfectly normal.
+They clasped hands.
+
+"Casualties of war!" said Febrer.
+
+"Casualties of fortune!" replied the other.
+
+Jaime liked the knight commander because he had represented in the bosom
+of the noble family lawlessness, license, scorn of convention. What
+cared he for difference of race and religion when he fancied a woman?
+
+When this noble ancestor had come to middle life he retired to Tunis
+among his good friends the rich corsairs, who, once hating and fighting
+him, now at last became his comrades. Of this period of his existence
+little was known. Some thought that he had become a renegade, and that
+as a diversion he even gave chase on the sea to the galleys from Malta.
+Enemies of his, gentlemen of the Order, swore to having seen him during
+a battle, dressed as a Turk, in the forecastle of a hostile ship. The
+only positive fact was that he lived in Tunis in a palace on the
+seashore with a Moorish woman of splendid beauty, a relative of his
+friend the Bey. Two letters in the archives testified to this
+incomprehensible liaison. When the Moslem woman died Don Priamo returned
+to Malta, deeming his career ended. The highest dignitaries of the Order
+desired to favor him if he would amend his conduct, and they talked of
+appointing him Commander of the Order of Malta at Negroponte, or else
+Great Castellan at Amposta, but the incorrigible Don Priamo would not
+better his ways, and continued a libertine, crusty, fickle in
+disposition toward his companions, but a beloved hero to his brothers in
+arms, men of the ranks belonging to the Order, mere soldiers who could
+display over their cuirasses no other decoration than that of the half
+cross.
+
+Scorn for their intrigues, and the hatred of his enemies, caused him to
+abandon the archipelago of the Order, the Islands of Malta and Gozo,
+ceded by the Emperor to the warrior friars for no other price than the
+annual tribute of a goshawk such as are native to the island. Old and
+worn he retired to Majorca, living off the products of the estates
+belonging to his commandery situated in Catalonia. The impiety and the
+vices of the hero horrified the family and scandalized the island. Three
+young Moorish girls and a Jewess of great beauty were his companions in
+the guise of servants where they occupied a whole wing of the Febrer
+mansion, which was much larger at that time than today. Moreover, he
+kept several male slaves; some were Turks; others Tartars; these shook
+with fear whenever they saw him. He had dealings with old women who were
+held to be witches; he consulted Hebraic healers; he shut himself up in
+his dormitory with these suspicious characters, and the neighbors
+trembled at seeing his windows glow with an infernal fire in the small
+hours of the night. Some of his male slaves grew pale and languid as if
+their lives were being sucked away. The people whispered that the knight
+commander was using their blood for magic drinks. Don Priamo wished to
+renew his youth; he was eager to reanimate his body with vital fires.
+The Grand Inquisitor of Majorca hinted at the possibility of paying a
+visit, with familiars and alguazils, to the apartments of the knight
+commander, but the latter who was a cousin of the Inquisitor,
+communicated by letter his intention of knocking open his head with a
+boarding pike if he ventured to so much as set foot on the first step of
+his stairway.
+
+Don Priamo died, or rather he burst under pressure of his diabolical
+beverages, leaving as a testimonial of his freedom from bias a will, the
+copy of which Jaime had read. The warrior of the church willed the main
+portion of his property, as well as his weapons and trophies, to his
+elder brother's children, as had likewise done all the second sons of
+the house; but in continuation there figured a long list of legacies,
+all for children of his whom he declared begotten of Moorish slave women
+or of Jewess friends, Armenians and Greeks, vegetating, wrinkled, and
+decrepit, in some port of the Levant; an offspring like that of a
+patriarch of the Bible, but all irregular, hybrid, the product of the
+crossing of hostile blood of antagonistic races. Famous knight
+commander! It seemed as if on breaking his vows he tried to minimize the
+offense by always choosing infidel women. To his sins of carnality was
+added the shame of traffic with females hostile to the true God.
+
+Jaime looked upon him as a precursor who cleared away his doubts. What
+was strange about his marrying a Chueta, a woman like others in her
+customs, beliefs, and education, since the most famous of the Febrers in
+an epoch of intolerance had lived beyond the pale of the law with
+infidel women? Suddenly, however, family prejudices provoked in Jaime a
+twinge of remorse, causing him to recall a clause in the knight
+commander's will. He left legacies to the children of his slave women,
+hybrids of other races, because they were of his blood and he wished to
+shield them from the sufferings of poverty, but he prohibited them from
+using their father's name, the name of the Febrers which had always been
+kept legally free from degrading admixtures in their Majorcan house.
+
+Recalling this, Jaime smiled in the darkness. Who could answer for the
+past? What mysteries might not be hidden at the roots of the trunk of
+his origin, back in the medieval times, when the Febrers and the rich of
+the Balearic synagogue trafficked together and loaded their ships in
+Puerto Pi? Many of his family, and even he himself, with other members
+of the ancient Majorcan nobility, had something Jewish in their faces.
+Purity of race was an illusion. The life of nations depends upon
+constant change, the great producer of mixtures and assimilations. But,
+ah, the proud family scruples! The dividing lines created by custom!
+
+He himself, though pretending to jest at the prejudices of the past,
+experienced an irresistible feeling of haughtiness in the presence of
+Don Benito who was to become his father-in-law. He considered himself
+superior; he tolerated him with condescending courtesy; he had mentally
+revolted when the rich Chueta spoke of his pretended friendship for Don
+Horacio. No, the Febrers had never mingled with these people. When his
+ancestors were in Algiers with the Emperor, Catalina's forefathers were
+probably shut up in the ward of Calatrava, making objects of silver,
+trembling at the thought that peasant-farmers might descend upon Palma
+under pretext of war, groveling, white with terror, before the Great
+Inquisitor, undoubtedly some Febrer, to gain his protection.
+
+Outside, in the reception hall, hung the portrait of one of his less
+remote ancestors, a senor with shaven face, fine colorless lips, white
+wig, and red silk coat, who, according to a memorandum on the canvas,
+had been perpetual governor of the city of Palma. King Carlos III sent a
+royal ordinance to the island prohibiting the insulting of the old-time
+Jews, "an industrious and honorable people," threatening with penalty of
+imprisonment whosoever should call them "Chuetas." The island council
+sniffed at this absurd order of the too kind monarch, and Governor
+Febrer settled the matter with the authority of his name. "File the
+ordinance; it will be noted, but it will not be complied with. Why
+should the Chuetas be given respect like any one of us? They are content
+so long as their pockets and their women are not touched." Then they all
+laughed, saying that Febrer spoke from experience, for he was extremely
+fond of visiting "the street," giving work to the silversmiths so as to
+be able to talk to their women.
+
+In the reception room there was also another ancestral portrait--that of
+the Inquisitor Don Jaime Febrer, whose name he bore. In the garrets of
+the house he had found several visiting cards yellowed by time, bearing
+the name of the rich priest; cards engraved with emblems such as came
+into use in the Eighteenth Century. In the center of the card appeared a
+wooden cross, with a sword and an olive branch; on both sides two
+pasteboard coronets worn as a mark of infamy by those on whom punishment
+was to be inflicted, one with the cross of the Sacred Office, another
+with dragons and Medusa heads. Manacles, whips, rosaries, and candles
+completed the decoration. Below burned a bonfire around a post with a
+large iron ring, and there figured a conical hat decorated with
+serpents, toads, and horned heads. A sort of sarcophagus rose between
+these decorations, and on it was inscribed in ancient Spanish
+lettering: "The Senior Inquisitor, Don Jaime Febrer." The peaceful
+Majorcan who, on returning to his house, found this visiting card, must
+have felt his hair rise in terror.
+
+Another of his ancestors came into his mind, the one mentioned by the
+choleric Pablo Valls when he recalled the burning of the Chuetas and
+Father Garau's little book. He was an elegant and gallant Febrer, who
+had kindled enthusiasm among the ladies of Palma at the famous auto de
+fe, with his new suit of Florentine cloth, embroidered in gold, mounted
+upon a charger as sightly as his master, carrying the standard of the
+Sacred Tribunal. In flights of lyric rapture the Jesuit described his
+genteel bearing. At sundown the knight had seen, there near the foot of
+the castle of Bellver, how the corpulent bulk of Rafael Valls had
+burned, and how his entrails had burst out and fallen into the coals, a
+spectacle from which the presence of ladies distracted his attention,
+making his horse caracole near the doors of their carriages. Captain
+Valls was right; it was barbarous; but the Febrers were his kindred; his
+name and the fortune he had squandered he had owed to them. Now he, the
+last descendant of a family proud of its history, was about to marry
+Catalina Valls, the offspring of the executed Jew!
+
+The old wives' tales he had heard in childhood, the simple stories with
+which Mammy Antonia used to entertain him, now surged through his mind
+like dreams of the past, which had made a deep impression. He thought of
+the Chuetas, who, according to popular opinion, were not the same as
+other people; reputed to be creatures of sordid poverty and slimy to the
+touch, who, no doubt, concealed terrible deformities. Who could say that
+Catalina was like other women?
+
+Then his thoughts turned to Pablo Valls, so merry and generous, the
+superior of nearly every other friend Jaime possessed on the island, but
+Pablo had lived little in Majorca; he had traveled widely; he was not
+like those of his race, working stationary like automatons in the same
+posture for centuries, reproducing themselves in their cowardice,
+lacking courage and unity to compel respect.
+
+Jaime knew rich Jewish families in Paris and in Berlin. He had even
+solicited loans from the lofty barons of Israel, but as he came into
+contact with these true Hebrews who clung to their religion and their
+independence, he did not feel that instinctive repugnance aroused by the
+devout Don Benito and other Chuetas of Majorca. Was it atmosphere which
+influenced him? Was it that centuries of submission, and fear, and the
+habit of cringing, had made of the Jews of Majorca a different race?
+
+Febrer at last sank into the darkness of sleep, with these thoughts
+whirling through his troubled mind.
+
+While dressing next morning, he decided, by a great effort of the will,
+to make a certain call. This marriage was something extraordinary and
+risky, which demanded long reflection, as his friend the smuggler had
+pointed out.
+
+"Before taking the step I must play my last card," thought Jaime. "I'll
+go and see the Popess Juana. I haven't seen her for many years, but she
+is my aunt, my nearest relative. In justice, I ought to be her heir. Ah,
+if only that idea would occur to her! If she would only bestir herself
+all my troubles would be over."
+
+Jaime decided upon the most advantageous hour to visit the great lady.
+In the afternoon she held her famous salon of canons and austere
+gentlemen whom she received with the airs of a sovereign. These were to
+be the inheritors of her money, as agents and representatives of various
+corporations of a religious character. He must visit her immediately;
+surprise her in her solitude after mass and morning prayers.
+
+Dona Juana lived in a palace near the Cathedral. She had remained
+unmarried, abominating the world after certain deceptions in her youth
+for which Jaime's father had been responsible. All the combativeness of
+her irrascible disposition, and the zeal of her cold and haughty faith,
+she had dedicated to politics and religion. "For God and for the King,"
+Febrer had heard her say, on visiting her once when he was a boy. In her
+youth she had dreamed of the heroines of Vendee, she had been aroused by
+the heroic deeds and sufferings of the Duchess of Berry, and was eager,
+like those forceful women, devoted to their legitimate rulers and to
+religion, to mount a war horse, wearing an image of Christ on her
+breast, with a sabre hanging by her side. This desire, however, did not
+pass beyond vague dreams. In reality she had been on no other expedition
+than a trip to Catalonia, during the last Carlist war, to see at closer
+range the sacred enterprise which was absorbing a great part of her
+wealth.
+
+The enemies of the Popess Juana declared that the young woman had kept
+concealed in her palace the Count of Montemolin, a pretender to the
+crown, and that she had drawn him into conspiracy with General Ortega,
+Captain General of the islands. To these rumors were added tales of the
+romantic love of Dona Juana for the pretender. Jaime smiled on hearing
+this gossip. It was all a lie; Don Horacio's grandfather, who had known
+the whole story, often mentioned these matters to his grandson. The
+Popess Juana had loved no other than Jaime's father. General Ortega was
+a deluded person whom Dona Juana received with extraordinary show of
+mystery, gowned in white, in a darkened salon, talking in a sweet voice
+which seemed to come from beyond the tomb, as if she were an angel of
+the past, concerning the necessity of turning Spain back to its ancient
+customs, sweeping away the liberals, and reestablishing the government
+of caballeros. "For God and for the King!" Ortega was shot on the coast
+of Catalonia when his Carlist expedition failed, and the Popess remained
+in Majorca, ready to bestow her money upon new pious enterprises.
+
+Many thought that she was ruined after her prodigality during the last
+civil war, but Jaime knew what a fortune the devout lady possessed. She
+lived as simply as a peasant; she still owned extensive estates, and the
+money she had saved by her economies went in the form of gifts to
+churches and convents and in donations to Saint Peter's treasury. Her
+old time motto, "For God and for the King!" had suffered mutilation. She
+no longer thought of the king. Nothing was left of her former enthusiasm
+for the exiled pretender except a great daguerreotype with a dedication
+adorning the darker part of her salon.
+
+"A fine young man," she used to say, "but like all liberals! Ah, life in
+a foreign land! How it changes men! What sins----!"
+
+Now her enthusiasm was only for God, and her money made its way to Rome.
+One supreme hope dominated her life. Would not the Holy Father send her
+the "Golden Rose" before she died? It was a gift originally intended for
+none but queens, but some pious rich women of South America had received
+this distinction, and Juana gave a detailed account of her liberalities,
+living in holy poverty so that she might send still more money. The
+"Golden Rose," and then she would be ready to die!
+
+Febrer arrived at the dwelling of the Popess: a zaguan resembling his
+own, but better kept, cleaner, with no grass between the paving stones,
+no cracks nor broken places in the wall, but all in monastic
+pulchritude! The door was opened to him by a servant, young and pale,
+dressed in a blue habit with a white cord, who made a gesture of
+surprise on recognizing Jaime.
+
+She left him in the reception hall among a concourse of portraits, such
+as that in the house of the Febrers, and she ran with a light, rat-like
+trot to the interior rooms to announce this extraordinary visit which
+disturbed the monastic peace of the palace.
+
+Long moments of silence followed. Jaime heard furtive footsteps in the
+adjoining apartments; he saw curtains which swayed lightly, as if moved
+by a gentle zephyr; he felt lurking forms behind them, unseen eyes
+spying upon him. The servant reappeared, bowing low to Jaime with grave
+courtesy, for was he not the senora's nephew? She left the great salon
+and disappeared.
+
+Febrer amused himself while waiting by looking over the vast room, with
+its archaic luxury. His own house had been like this in his
+grandfather's time. The walls were covered with rich crimson damask
+forming a background for the ancient religious paintings in soft,
+Italian style. The furniture was of white and gilded wood, with
+voluptuous curves, upholstered in heavy embroidered silk. Polychrome
+figures of saints and Eighteenth Century hangings with mythological
+scenes were reflected in the deep azure mirrors above the consoles. The
+vaulted ceiling was painted in fresco, with an assemblage of gods and
+goddesses seated on clouds, whose rosy nudity and bold gestures
+contrasted sharply with the dolorous visage of a great Christ which
+seemed to preside over the salon, occupying a wide space on the wall
+between two doors. The Popess recognized the sinfulness of these
+mythological decorations, but as they were reminiscent of a happy epoch,
+of a time when the caballeros ruled, she respected them, and tried not
+to see them.
+
+A damask curtain parted, and a woman who looked like an old servant
+entered the salon, dressed in black, wearing a plain skirt and a poor
+jacket, after the manner of a peasant woman. Her gray hair was partly
+concealed by a dark shawl to which time and grease had imparted a
+reddish tint. Beneath her skirt peeped forth feet shod in hempen
+sandals, with coarse white stockings. Jaime hastily arose. That old
+servant was the Popess!
+
+The chairs were arranged in a certain disorder, which suggested the
+coterie which gathered there every afternoon. Each seat belonged by
+right of habit to a certain grave person, and stood motionless in its
+own particular place. Dona Juana occupied a great throne-like chair,
+from which seat she presided every afternoon over her faithful reunion
+of canons, old woman friends, and senoras of wholesome ideas, like a
+queen receiving her court.
+
+"Sit down," she said to her nephew curtly.
+
+She extended her hands, in the automatism of custom, across a monumental
+empty silver brazier, and stared at Jaime fixedly with her piercing gray
+eyes so accustomed to commanding respect. This authoritative stare
+gradually began to soften until it weakened in tears of emotion. She had
+not seen her nephew for nearly ten years.
+
+"You are a true Febrer. You look like your grandfather--like all of the
+men of your family."
+
+She concealed her real thoughts; she kept silent about the only
+resemblance which moved her, his likeness to his father. Jaime was the
+young naval officer, just as he used to come to see her in the old days!
+He lacked nothing but the uniform and the eyeglasses. Ah, that monster
+of liberalism and of ingratitude!
+
+Soon her eyes recovered their accustomed hardness; her features became
+more dry, more pale and angular.
+
+"What do you wish?" she said rudely; "because you certainly have not
+come merely for the pleasure of seeing me!"
+
+The moment had arrived! Jaime lowered his eyes with childish hypocrisy,
+and, afraid of broaching his actual desires, he began his attack in a
+roundabout manner. He explained that he was good, that he believed in
+all the old ideals, that he desired to maintain the prestige of his
+family and to add to it. He had not been a saint; he confessed it; a
+wild life had consumed his wealth--but the honor of the house remained
+intact! This life of sin and wickedness had given him two things,
+experience, and the firm intention to mend his ways.
+
+"Aunt, I want to change my way of living; I want to become a different
+man."
+
+The aunt assented with an enigmatic gesture. Very well; thus Saint
+Augustine and other holy men who had spent their early lives in
+licentiousness, changed their ways and had become luminaries of the
+church.
+
+Jaime felt encouraged by these words. He certainly would never figure as
+a luminary of anything, but he desired to be a good Christian gentleman;
+he would marry, he would educate his children to carry on the traditions
+of the house--a beautiful future! But, alas! lives as irregular as his
+were difficult to patch up when the moment came to direct them toward
+virtuous ends. He needed help. He was ruined; his lands were almost in
+the hands of his creditors; his house was a desert; he had protected
+himself by selling the mementoes of the past. He, a Febrer, was about to
+be thrust into the street, unless some merciful hand should assist him;
+and he had thought of his aunt, who, when all was said and done, was his
+nearest relative, almost like a mother, in whom he trusted to save him.
+
+The imaginary motherhood caused Dona Juana to flush slightly, and
+augmented the hard glitter in her eyes. Ah, memory, with its haunting
+visions!
+
+"And is it from me you hope for salvation?" slowly replied the Popess in
+a voice that hissed between the yellow rows of her parted teeth. "You
+are wasting your time, Jaime. I am poor. I have almost nothing--barely
+enough to live on and to make a few gifts to charity."
+
+She said it with such an accent of firmness that Febrer lost hope and
+realized that it would be useless to insist. The Popess would not help
+him.
+
+"Very well," said Jaime with visible discouragement. "But, lacking your
+assistance, I must seek another solution for my troubles, and I have one
+in view. You are now the head of my family, and it is right for me to
+seek your advice. I am considering a marriage which can save me; an
+alliance with a rich woman, but one who does not belong to our class;
+one of low origin. What ought I to do?"
+
+He expected in his aunt a movement of surprise, of curiosity. Perhaps
+the announcement of his marriage would soften her. It was almost certain
+that, terrified at this great danger to the honor of her house and of
+her blood, she would smooth the way for him by conceding assistance,
+but the one to be surprised, to be dismayed, was Jaime as he saw the
+pale lips of the old woman part in a cold smile.
+
+"I have heard," she said. "I was told all about it this morning in Santa
+Eulalia as I was coming away from mass. You were at Valldemosa
+yesterday. You are going to marry--you are going to marry--a Chueta!"
+
+It cost her an effort to pronounce the word; she shuddered as she spoke
+it. After this a long silence reigned, one of those tragic and absolute
+silences which follow great catastrophes, as if the house had just
+tumbled down, and the echo of the last toppled wall had died away.
+
+"And what do you think of it?" Jaime ventured to ask timidly.
+
+"Do as you wish," said the Popess with frigidity. "You remember that we
+have lived many years without seeing each other, and we can go on in the
+same way for the rest of our lives. Do as you please. Henceforward you
+and I will be like people of different blood; we think along different
+lines; we cannot understand each other."
+
+"So I ought not to marry?" he insisted.
+
+"Ask yourself that question. For many years the Febrers have wandered on
+such crooked paths that nothing they do surprises me."
+
+Jaime detected in his aunt's eyes and noted in her voice a repressed
+joy, a reveling in vengeance, the satisfaction of seeing her enemies
+fall into what she considered a dishonor, and this irritated him.
+
+"But if I marry," he said, imitating Dona Juana's frigid manner, "will
+you come to my wedding?"
+
+This put an end to the tranquillity of the Popess, who drew herself up
+haughtily. The romantic books of her youth rushed through her mind; she
+spoke like an injured queen at the end of a chapter of a historic novel.
+
+"Caballero! I am a Genovart on my father's side. My mother was a Febrer,
+but one family is as good as the other. I renounce the blood that is to
+be mixed with a vile people, Christ killers, and I remain true to my
+own, to that of my father which will end with me pure and honorable!"
+
+She pointed toward the door with arrogant mien, bringing the interview
+to a close, but soon she seemed to realize how abrupt and theatrical her
+protest had been, and she lowered her eyes; she grew more human,
+assuming an air of Christian meekness.
+
+"Good-bye, Jaime; may the Lord enlighten you!"
+
+"Good-bye, Aunt."
+
+Impelled by custom he extended his hand, but she drew hers back,
+concealing it behind her. Febrer smiled as he recalled certain tales
+told by the gossips. It was not scorn nor hatred. The Popess had made a
+vow that as long as she lived she would touch the hand of no man except
+those of the priests.
+
+When he found himself again on the street, he began to curse mentally,
+looking at the swelling balconies of the rococo mansion. Rattlesnake!
+How she rejoiced at his marriage! When it had become a fact she would
+pretend indignation and scandal before her coterie; perhaps she would
+get sick so that all the islanders would sympathize with her, and yet,
+her joy would be great, the joy of a vengeance nourished for many years,
+on seeing a Febrer, the son of the man she hated, submerged in what she
+considered the most ignominious of dishonors. Urged on by the certainty
+of ruin, he must give her this joy by carrying into effect his union
+with the daughter of Valls! Ah, poverty!
+
+He wandered along the solitary streets near the Almudaina and the
+Cathedral until past midday. At last hunger instinctively turned his
+steps homeward. He ate in silence, without knowing what was put before
+him, not even seeing Mammy, who, worried and restless since the previous
+day, was eager to start a conversation in order to learn more news.
+
+After luncheon he stepped out upon a small gallery with a crumbling
+balustrade crowned by three Roman busts which looked into the garden. At
+his feet spread the foliage of the figs, the varnished leaves of the
+magnolias, the green balls on the orange trees. Before him the trunks of
+the palms shut off the blue of space, and, farther away, the
+sharp-pointed merlons of the wall extended to the sea, the luminous,
+immense sea, trembling with life as if the barkentines with their
+wind-filled sails were tickling its greenish surface. At his right lay
+the port crowded with masts and surrounded with yellow chimneys; beyond,
+striding into the waters of the bay, the dark mass of the pines of
+Bellver, and on the summit the circular castle like a bull-ring, with
+its Torre de Homenaje apart, isolated, with no other link than a
+graceful bridge. Below lay the modern red houses of Terreno, and beyond,
+at the end of the cape, the ancient Puerto Pi with its signal towers and
+the batteries of Don Carlos.
+
+Across the bay, losing itself in the sea, amid the fog floating upon the
+horizon, was a dark green cape with reddish rocks, gloomy and desolate.
+
+Against the blue sky the Cathedral lifted its buttresses and arcades
+like a ship of stone bereft of masts, flung by angry waves between the
+city and the shore. Behind the temple the ancient alcazar, the
+Almudaina, flaunted its red, Moorish, almost windowless towers. In the
+bishop's palace the glass panes in the miradors shone like flames of
+reddened steel, as if reflected from a conflagration. Between this
+palace and the sea wall, in a deep, grass-grown fosse along whose walls
+crept windswept garlands of rosebushes, lay some cannons, a few of them
+very ancient and mounted upon wheels; others more modern, which had
+awaited for years the call to action, were scattered over the ground.
+The great iron guns were oxidized, as were the gun-carriages; the
+long-range cannons, painted red, and sunken in the herbage, resembled
+exhaust pipes of a steam engine. Neglect and the rust of disuse were
+aging these modern pieces. The traditional, monotonous atmosphere which,
+according to Febrer, enveloped the island, seemed to weigh upon these
+instruments of war, old and out-of-date almost before they were
+fashioned, and before ever having spoken.
+
+Insensible to the joyousness of the sun, heedless of the luminous
+palpitation of the blue expanse, deaf to the chirping of the birds
+fluttering at his feet, Jaime was overcome by intense sadness, by
+overwhelming depression.
+
+Why struggle with the past? How rid himself of the chain? At birth
+everyone found the place and the gesture for everything in the course of
+his existence already defined; it was useless even to wish to change
+one's situation.
+
+Often in his early youth, on looking down from a height upon the city
+with its smiling environs, he had felt obsessed by gloomy thoughts. In
+the sunshine-flooded streets, under shelter of the roofs, swarmed an
+ant-like humanity, dominated by necessities and ideas of the moment
+which they considered all important, believing with consuming egotism in
+a superior and omnipotent being watching and directing their goings and
+comings, as insignificant as the infusoria in a drop of water. Beyond
+the town Jaime's imagination pictured cypress tops thrust above sombre
+walls, the white structures of a compactly built city, multitudes of
+tiny windows like the mouths of ovens, and marble slabs which seemed to
+cover the entrances to caves. How many were the inhabitants of the city
+of the living, in their plazas and on their broad streets? Sixty
+thousand--eighty thousand. Ah! In that other city but a short distance
+away, crowded, silent, packed into their little white houses beneath the
+gloomy cypresses, the invisible inhabitants numbered four hundred
+thousand--six hundred thousand, perhaps a million!
+
+In Madrid, the same thought had flashed through his brain one afternoon
+while he was strolling with two women through the outskirts of the town.
+The crests of the hills near the river were occupied by silent villages,
+among whose white edifices rose pointed groups of cypress; and on the
+opposite side of the great city also existed other bivouacs of silence
+and oblivion. The city was surrounded by a closely drawn cordon of
+fortresses of the departed. Half a million living beings swarmed through
+the streets, imagining themselves alone in the mastery and direction of
+their existences, never heeding the four--six--eight millions of their
+kind, close beside them, but invisible.
+
+The same thought had come to him in Paris, where four millions of
+stirring citizens dwelt, surrounded by twenty or thirty millions of
+whilom inhabitants now asleep. The same melancholy reflections had
+haunted him in all the great cities.
+
+The living were nowhere alone; the dead ever surrounded them, and as the
+dead were more, infinitely more, they weighed upon the living with the
+heaviness of time and of numbers.
+
+No; the dead did not depart, as the people thought. The dead remained
+motionless on the brink of life, spying upon the new generations,
+forcing upon them the authority of the past with a rude tug at the soul
+whenever they tried to step out of the beaten path.
+
+What tyranny was theirs! What unlimited power! It was futile to turn
+away the eyes and to stifle memory; the dead are everywhere; they occupy
+the highways of the living, and they stride out to meet us and remind us
+of their benefactions, compelling us to a debasing gratitude. What
+servitude! The house in which we live was constructed by the dead;
+religions were created by them; the laws which we obey the dead
+dictated. Our favorite dishes, our tastes, our passions, came from them;
+the foods which nourish us, all are produced by earth broken up by hands
+which now are dust. Morality, customs, prejudices, honor--these are
+their work. Had they thought in some different way, the present
+organizations of men would not be as they are today. The things which
+are agreeable to our senses are so because thus the dead willed them;
+the disagreeable and useless are detested by the will of those who no
+longer exist; what is moral and what is immoral are sentences pronounced
+centuries ago by them.
+
+Those men who make an effort to say new things do nothing but repeat in
+different words the same thoughts that the dead had been expressing for
+centuries. That which we consider most spontaneous and personal in
+ourselves has been dictated to us by unseen masters lying in their
+earthen couches, who, in their turn, had learned the lesson from other
+ancestors. The gleam of our eyes is but the glow of the souls of our
+forefathers, as the lines in our faces reproduce and reflect the traces
+of generations long disappeared.
+
+Febrer smiled sadly. We imagine that we think our own thoughts, while in
+the convolutions of our brain stirs a force which has lived in other
+organisms, like the sap of the grafted shoot which carries energy from
+old and dying trees to new offshoots. Much of the thought which we
+express spontaneously, as the latest novelty of our mind, is an idea of
+those others, encysted in our brain at birth, and which suddenly bursts
+its bondage. Our tastes, our caprices, our virtues and our defects, our
+affinities and our repulsions--all inherited, all a work of those who
+have disappeared but who survive in us.
+
+With what terror Jaime thought of the power of the dead! They concealed
+themselves to make their tyranny less cruel, but they had not really
+perished; their souls were lying within the confines of our existence,
+just as their bodies formed an entrenched field roundabout the man-made
+towns. They scrutinized us with arbitrary eyes; they followed us,
+guiding us with invisible clutch at the slightest indication of
+deviating from the path; they banded together with diabolic
+determination to lead the flocks of men who rush after some new and
+extraordinary ideal, reestablishing with violent reaction, the order of
+life, which they love, silent and placid, amid rustle of dried grasses
+and the flutter of butterfly wings and the sweet peace of the cemetery,
+asleep in the sun.
+
+The souls of the dead fill the world. The dead do not go away, they
+remain as masters. The dead command, and it is useless to resist.
+
+The man of the great cities living a giddy life, knowing not who built
+his house, nor who makes his bread, seeing no other works of nature than
+the stunted trees adorning his streets, ignores these things. He does
+not even realize that his life is spent among millions and millions of
+his forefathers crowded together but a few steps away, spying upon him
+and directing him. He blindly obeys their tugging, without knowing where
+leads the cord fastened upon his soul. Poor automaton, he believes all
+his acts to be the product of his will, when they are nothing less than
+impositions of the omnipotent invisible horde.
+
+Jaime, submerged in the monotonous existence of a tranquil island,
+thinking back upon his forefathers one by one, knowing the origin and
+history of all that surrounded him, objects of art, clothing, furniture,
+and the house itself which seemed possessed of a soul, could give
+account of this tyranny better than could others.
+
+Yes; the dead command! The authority of the living, their startling
+novelties--illusion, deception, serving only to carry forward existence.
+
+Gazing on the sea, on whose horizon the smoke from a steamer traced a
+slender column, Febrer thought of the great trans-Atlantic liners,
+floating cities, speeding monsters, the pride of human industry, which
+can make the round of the world in a few short weeks. His remote
+ancestors in the Middle Ages who went to England in a ship no better
+than a fishing smack, represented something more extraordinary, and the
+great captains of the present time with their swarming crews, had not
+achieved greater deeds than the knight commander Priamo with his handful
+of sailors. What deceptions, what illusions, we form concerning life, to
+conceal from ourselves the monotony of its shams. The brevity of its
+experiences was maddening. It mattered not whether one lived thirty
+years or three hundred. Men perfected the playthings which served their
+egoism and their well being, machines, means of locomotion; but aside
+from this, they lived the same. The passions, the joys, and the sorrows
+were the same; the human animal did not change.
+
+Jaime had believed himself a free man, with a soul which he called
+modern, his, all his; and now he discovered in it a confused medley of
+the souls of his ancestors. He could recognize them, because he had
+studied them, because they were in the next room, in the archives, like
+dried flowers preserved between the leaves of an old book. The majority
+of humans retained at the most a memory of their great grandfathers;
+families which had been unable to scrupulously preserve the history of
+their past through the centuries gave no heed to the ancestral life
+perpetuated in their souls, taking as inspirations of their own the
+cries which their ancestors uttered through them. Our flesh was flesh of
+those who no longer exist; our souls combined fragments of the souls of
+many dead men.
+
+Jaime felt within him his austere grandfather, Don Horacio, and along
+with him the animosities of the Inquisitor-general, he of the appalling
+visiting card, and the souls of the famous knight commander and other
+ancestors. In the mind of the man of today still lingered something of
+that "perpetual governor" who considered the Jewish converts on the
+island as a separate and degraded race.
+
+The dead command! Now he understood the inevitable repugnance, the
+arrogance he had felt as he came into contact with the obsequious and
+humble Don Benito. Those sentiments were unconquerable, and his aversion
+irremediable. It was imposed upon him by others stronger than himself.
+The dead command, and they must be obeyed!
+
+His pessimism caused him to reflect upon his present condition. All was
+lost! He was unfitted for the conduct of a small business, for the
+petty transactions and details which might suffice for one of meager
+wants. He would renounce the idea of that marriage which was his only
+salvation, and his creditors, as soon as they heard the news that this
+hope had vanished would fall upon him. He would find himself expelled
+from the house of his forefathers, pitied by everybody, with a pity that
+would sting more keenly than insult. He felt himself unequal to witness
+the final wreck of his house and of his name. What could he do? Where
+should he go?
+
+He sat staring at the sea for a great part of the afternoon, watching
+the white sails until they hid themselves behind the cape, or vanished
+into the broad horizon of the bay.
+
+Leaving the terrace without knowing how, Febrer found himself opening
+the door of the chapel, an old and forgotten door, which, as it creaked
+upon its rusty hinges, scattered dust and cobwebs. How long it had been
+since he had entered there! In the dense atmosphere of the closed room
+he thought he perceived a vague odor of essences, as from a bottle of
+perfume opened and long abandoned; an odor which brought back to his
+memory the solemn dames of the family whose portraits hung in the
+reception hall.
+
+In the ray of light filtering through the tiny windows of the cupola
+millions of dust motes illuminated by the sun danced in an ascending
+spiral. The altar, with its antique carving, glowed faintly in the
+mellowed light with reflections of old gold. Upon it lay a duster and a
+pail, carelessly left since the last cleaning of the room, many years
+ago.
+
+Two prayer stools of old blue velvet seemed to still retain the
+impression of lordly and delicate forms which no longer existed. Two
+prayer books with worn edges lay upon the rack before them, as if
+forgotten. Jaime recognized one of the books. It had belonged to his
+mother, poor lady, pale and sick, who divided her life between praying
+and the adoration of her son, for whom she dreamed an illustrious
+future. The other, perhaps, had belonged to his grandmother, that
+Mexican lady of the days of romanticism, who still seemed to thrill the
+great house with the rustling of her white garments and the melody of
+her harp.
+
+The apparition from the past, vague and dim, arising in the deserted
+chapel, the memory of those two ladies, the one all piety, the other all
+idealism, aristocratic and dreamy, drove Febrer to distraction. To think
+that soon the rude hands of the usurer would profane so much that was
+old and venerable! He could not stay to witness it! Good-bye! Good-bye!
+
+At dusk he sought out Toni Clapes in the Borne. With the confidence
+which the contrabandist inspired in him he asked him for money.
+
+"I don't know when I can return it. I am leaving Majorca. Everything is
+going to ruin, but I must not stay to see it."
+
+Clapes gave Jaime more money than he asked for. Toni was to stay awhile
+on the island, and with the help of Captain Valls he would try to
+straighten out Jaime's business affairs, if it were still possible. The
+captain was a good business man, and he knew how to disentangle the most
+hopeless complications. He and Jaime had quarreled the day before, but
+that was no matter; Valls was a true friend.
+
+"Don't tell anyone that I am going away," added Jaime. "No one must know
+it but you--and Pablo. You are right; he is a friend."
+
+"And when are you leaving?"
+
+"On the first steamer for Iviza."
+
+Jaime still had something left there; a pile of rocks covered with
+thickets and full of rabbits; a crumbling tower belonging to the time of
+the pirates. He had learned of it by chance the day before; some
+peasants from Iviza whom he had met in the Borne had reminded him of it.
+
+"I shall be as well off there as anywhere else--better, much better! I
+will hunt and fish. I am going to live where I cannot see people."
+
+Clapes, remembering the advice he had given the evening before, grasped
+Jaime's hand with satisfaction. That affair of the Chueta girl was a
+thing of the past. His peasant soul rejoiced at this solution.
+
+"You are right in going. The other thing, the other thing would have
+been an act of madness."
+
+END OF PART ONE
+
+
+
+
+PART SECOND
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+IVIZA
+
+
+Febrer was contemplating his image, a transparent shadow of quivering
+contours on the changing waters, through which the bottom of the sea
+could be seen with milky spots of clean sand and dark blocks of stone
+broken from the mountain overgrown with a strange vegetation.
+
+The seaweed floated backward and forward like waving green hair; fruits
+round as Indian figs hung in whitish clusters on the rocks; pearly
+flowers shone in the depths of the green waters, and among the
+mysterious growth star-fishes spread their colored points; sea-urchins
+formed balls like dark blots covered with spines; the hippocampi, those
+little "devil's horses," swam restlessly; and flashes of silver and
+purple, of tails and fins, passed swiftly among whirlpools and bubbles,
+dashing out of one cave to disappear into the mouth of another
+unfathomable mystery.
+
+Jaime was leaning over a small boat, with its sail dropped. In one hand
+he held the volanti, a long line with several hooks, which almost
+reached the bottom of the sea.
+
+It was nearly midday. The craft lay in the shade. In the rear extended
+the wide coast of Iviza with its broad sinuosities of projecting points
+and steep shores. Before him was the Vedra, an isolated rock, a superb
+landmark a thousand feet in height, which, standing solitary, seemed
+even higher. At his feet the shadow of the colossus imparted to the
+waters a dense and yet transparent color. Beyond its azure shadow
+seethed the Mediterranean, flashing with gold in the sunlight, while the
+coasts of Iviza, ruddy and lonely, seemed to irradiate fire.
+
+Every pleasant day Jaime came to the narrow channel between the island
+and the Vedra to fish. In calm weather this was a river of blue water
+with submarine rocks which peeped their black heads above the surface.
+The giant allowed itself to be approached without losing its imposing
+appearance, harsh and inhospitable. When the wind blew fresh and strong,
+the half submerged heads were crowned with foam and roared ominously;
+mountains of water rushed roaring and foaming through this maritime
+throat, and the fishermen must hoist their sails and hurry away from the
+narrow pass, from this growling chaos of whirlpools and currents.
+
+In the prow of the boat was old Uncle Ventolera, a seaman who had sailed
+on ships of many nations, who had been Jaime's companion since he
+arrived in Iviza. "I am almost eighty, senor," but he never let a day
+pass without going out to fish. Neither illness nor fear of bad weather
+prevented him. His face was tanned by the sun and the salt air, but it
+had few wrinkles. His rolled up trousers displayed spare legs with fresh
+and healthy skin. His blouse, open on the chest, showed a gray coating
+of hair of the same color as that on his head, which was covered by a
+black cap, a souvenir of his last trip to Liverpool, boasting a red
+tassel on the top, and a broad white and red plaid ribbon. His whiskers
+were white, and from his ears hung copper earrings.
+
+When Jaime first made his acquaintance he expressed curiosity in regard
+to these decorations.
+
+"When I was a lad I was a ship's boy on an English schooner," said
+Ventolera in his Ivizian dialect, singing the words in a sweet little
+voice. "The master was a very arrogant Maltese, with whiskers and
+earrings; and I said to myself, 'When I get to be a man I'm going to be
+like the padrone.' Although you see me like this, I used to be a great
+swell, and I used to like to imitate persons of importance."
+
+When Jaime first went but fishing to the Vedra he forgot to watch the
+water and the line in his hand, while he stared at the colossus which
+stands high above the sea, broken off from the coast.
+
+The rocks piled to a great height, wedged in one by another and mounting
+into space, compelled the spectator to throw back his head to see the
+pointed summit. The rocks at the water's edge were accessible. The sea
+swept over them, sinking in to the low arcades of submarine caves, a
+refuge of corsairs in former days, and now sometimes the depository of
+smugglers. One could leap at places from rock to rock among the sabinas
+and other wild plants along its base, but farther up the rock rose
+straight, smooth, inaccessible, with polished gray walls. At enormous
+heights were green-covered benches, and above these the cliff again rose
+vertically to its crest, sharp as a finger. A party of hunters had
+scaled a portion of this citadel, climbing along salient angles until
+they gained the lower benches. Beyond there no one had gone, according
+to Uncle Ventolera, except a certain friar exiled by the government as a
+Carlist agitator, who had built on the coast of Iviza the hermitage of
+the Cubells.
+
+"He was a strong and daring man," continued the old sailor. "They say
+that he erected a cross on the summit, but the wind blew it down some
+time ago."
+
+In the hollows of the great gray rock, shaded by the green sabinas and
+sea pines, Febrer saw points of color jumping about, something like red
+and white fleas, incessantly moving. They were the goats of the Vedra;
+goats abandoned for some years which had become wild, and which
+reproduced beyond the reach of man, having lost all domestic habit,
+springing up the mountain side with prodigious leaps as soon as a boat
+approached the cliff. On calm mornings their bleating, increased by the
+impressive silence, could be heard far out upon the sea.
+
+One morning, Jaime, having brought his gun, took a couple of shots at a
+cluster of goats a long distance away, not expecting to hit them, but
+merely for the fun of seeing them leap away. The reports, magnified by
+the echo within the narrow defile, filled the air with the screaming and
+flapping of wings of hundreds of enormous old gulls that flew out of
+their haunts, frightened by the noise. The startled island had given
+forth its winged inhabitants. Other huge birds emerged and flew from the
+summit and disappeared like black specks toward the larger island. These
+were falcons which roosted in the Vedra and lived upon the doves of
+Iviza and Formentera.
+
+The old sailor pointed out to Febrer certain window-like caves in the
+most sheer and inaccessible cliffs of the smaller island. Neither goat
+nor man could reach them. Uncle Ventolera knew what was hidden within
+those dark passages. They were beehives; beehives centuries and
+centuries old; natural retreats of bees that, crossing the straits
+between Iviza and the Vedra, took refuge in these inaccessible caves
+after having gleaned the flowery fields of the island. At certain times
+of the year he had seen glistening streams trickling down the cliff
+from these openings. It was honey melted by the sun at the entrance of
+the cavern.
+
+Uncle Ventolera tugged at his line with a grunt of satisfaction.
+
+"That makes eight!"
+
+Hanging from a hook, flapping its tail and kicking, was a species of
+lobster of dark gray color. Others of its kind lay inert in a basket at
+the old man's side.
+
+"Uncle Ventolera, aren't you going to sing the mass?"
+
+"If you will allow me."
+
+Jaime knew the old man's habits, his fondness for singing the canticles
+of high mass whenever he was in a joyous mood. Having given up long
+voyages, his pleasure consisted in singing on Sundays in the church in
+the town of San Jose, or in that of San Antonio, and indulging in the
+same diversion during all the happy moments of his life.
+
+"In a minute," he said with a tone of superiority, as if he were going
+to treat his companion to the greatest of delights.
+
+Placing one hand to his mouth he quickly extracted his teeth and put
+them in his girdle. His face collapsed into wrinkles around his sunken
+mouth, and he began to sing the phrases of the priest and the responses
+of the assistant. The childish and tremulous voice acquired a grave
+sonorousness as it resounded over the watery expanse and was reproduced
+by the echoes from the rocks. The goats on the Vedra responded from time
+to time with mild bleatings of surprise. Jaime smiled at the earnestness
+of the old man who, with eyes gazing aloft, pressed one hand against his
+heart, holding his fishline with the other. Thus they remained for some
+time, Febrer watching his line, on which he did not perceive the
+slightest movement. All the fish were taken by the old man. This put him
+in a bad humor, and he suddenly became annoyed at the singing.
+
+"Enough; Tio Ventolera, that's enough!"
+
+"You liked it, didn't you?" said the old man with candor. "I know other
+things, too; I could tell you about Captain Riquer--a true story. My
+father saw it all."
+
+Jaime made a gesture of protest. No, he did not wish to hear about
+Captain Riquer. He already knew the tale by heart. They had been going
+out fishing together for three months, and rarely did they get through
+the day without a relation of the event; but Tio Ventolera, with his
+senile inconsequence, convinced of the importance of everything
+concerning himself, had already begun his story, and Jaime, his back
+turned to his companion, was leaning over the boat, gazing into the
+depths of the sea, to avoid hearing once again what he already knew so
+well.
+
+Captain Antonio Riquer! A hero of Iviza, as great a mariner as Barcelo,
+who fought at Gibraltar and led the expedition against Algiers, but as
+Barcelo was a Majorcan and the other an Ivizan all the honors and
+decorations were bestowed upon the former. If there were such a thing as
+justice the sea ought to swallow the haughty island, the stepmother of
+Iviza. Suddenly the old man recollected that Febrer was a Majorcan and
+he was silent and confused.
+
+"That is to say," he added, making excuses for himself, "there are good
+people everywhere. Your lordship is one of them; but, to come back to
+Captain Riquer----"
+
+He was the master of a small three-masted vessel called a xebec, armed
+for privateering, the _San Antonio_, manned by Ivizans, engaged in
+constant strife with the galliots of the Algerian Moors and with the
+ships of England, the enemy of Spain. Riquer's name was known all over
+the Mediterranean. The event occurred in 1806. On Trinity Sunday, in the
+morning, a frigate carrying the British flag appeared off Iviza, tacking
+beyond the reach of the cannons of the castle. It was the _Felicidad_,
+the vessel of the Italian Miguel Novelli, dubbed "the Pope," a citizen
+of Gibraltar and a corsair in the service of England. He came in search
+of Riquer, to mock him in his very beard, sailing arrogantly in view of
+his city. The bells were rung furiously, drums were beat, and the
+citizens crowded upon the walls of Iviza and in the ward of "La Marina."
+The _San Antonio_ was being careened on the beach, but Riquer with his
+men shoved her into the water. The small cannon of the xebec had been
+dismounted, but they hastily tied them with ropes. Every man from the
+ward of the Marina was eager to embark, but the captain chose only fifty
+men and heard mass with them in the church of San Telmo. While they were
+hoisting the sails, Riquer's father appeared. He was an old sailor, and,
+in spite of his son's opposition, he climbed into the boat.
+
+The _San Antonio_ took many hours and expert maneuvering to draw close
+to "the Pope's" ship. The poor xebec looked like an insect beside the
+great vessel manned by the wildest and most reckless crew ever gathered
+on the wharves of Gibraltar--Maltese, Englishmen, Romans, Venetians,
+Livornese, Sardinians, and Dalmatians. The first broadside from the
+ship's cannons kills five men on the deck of the xebec, among them the
+father of Riquer. He lifts up the old man's body, being bathed in his
+blood, and he runs to place it in the hold. "They have killed our
+father!" groan the brothers. "Let's get busy!" replies Riquer sternly.
+"Bring out the frascos! We must board her!"
+
+The frascos, a terrible weapon of the Ivizan corsairs, fire-bottles,
+which, as they burst upon the enemy's decks, set it ablaze, begin to
+fall upon "the Pope's" vessel. The rigging begins to burn, the upper
+works shiver, and like demons Riquer and his men spring aboard among the
+flames, pistol in one hand, boarding axe in the other. The deck flows
+with blood, the corpses roll into the sea with broken heads. They find
+"the Pope" hiding, half dead with fear, in a locker in his cabin.
+
+Tio Ventolera laughed like a boy as he recalled this grotesque detail of
+Riquer's great victory. Then, when "the Pope" was brought a prisoner to
+the island, the people of the city and the peasants gathered in crowds,
+staring at him as if he were a rare wild beast. This was the pirate, the
+terror of the Mediterranean! And they had found him stuck between decks,
+shaking with fear of the Ivizans! He was sentenced to be strung up on
+the island of the hanged men, a small islet where now stands the
+lighthouse in the Strait of the Freus; but Godoy ordered him to be
+exchanged for some other Spaniards.
+
+Ventolera's father had seen great events; he was a cabin-boy on Riquer's
+ship. Later he had been captured by the Algerians, being one of the last
+captives enslaved before the occupation of Algiers by the French. There
+he ran a terrible risk of death once upon a time when one out of every
+ten of the captives was killed in revenge for the assassination of a
+wicked Moor whose body was found crammed into a latrine. Tio Ventolera
+remembered the stories his father used to tell of the days when Iviza
+produced corsairs, and when captured vessels were brought into port with
+captive Moors, both men and and women. The prisoners would be haled
+before the _escribano de presas_, the scrivener of the captives, as
+evidences of the victory, and he compelled them to swear "by Alaquivir,
+by the Prophet and his Koran, with hand and index-finger raised, his
+face turned toward the rising sun," while the fierce Ivizan corsairs, on
+dividing the booty, set aside a sum for the purchase of linen for
+binding up their wounds, and left another portion of the loot under
+pledge for celebration of daily mass by a priest every day while they
+were absent from the island.
+
+Tio Ventolera passed from Riquer to earlier valorous corsair commanders,
+but Jaime, annoyed by his chatter, ever displaying a desire to overwhelm
+the island of Majorca, its hostile neighbor, at last grew impatient.
+
+"It's twelve o'clock, grandfather. Let's go in; the fish have quit
+biting."
+
+The old man glanced at the sun, which had passed beyond the crest of the
+Vedra. It was not yet noon, but it lacked little. Then he looked at the
+sea; the senor was right; the fish would bite no longer, and he was
+satisfied with his day's work.
+
+He tugged at the rope with his lean arms, hoisting the small triangular
+sail. The boat heeled over, pitched without making headway, and then
+began to cleave the water with a gentle ripple against her sides. They
+sailed out of the channel, leaving the Vedra behind, coasting along the
+island. Jaime held the tiller, while the old man, clasping the
+fish-basket between his knees, began counting and fingering the catch
+with avaricious delight.
+
+They rounded a cape and a new stretch of coast appeared. On the summit
+of a mountain of red rocks, dotted here and there by dark masses of
+shrubbery, stood a broad yellow squat tower, with no opening on the
+side toward the sea except a window, a mere black hole of irregular
+contour. The outlines of a porthole in the battlement of the tower, that
+had formerly served for a small cannon, was outlined against the blue
+sky. On one side the promontory rose sheer above the sea, and on the
+other sloped landward, covered with green, with low and leafy groves,
+among which peeped the white dots of a diminutive village.
+
+The boat headed straight for the tower, and when near it they turned her
+toward a nearby beach, the bow grating upon the gravel. The old man
+struck the sail and warped the boat near a rock along shore from which
+hung a chain. He fastened the boat to it, and then he and Jaime sprang
+out. He did not wish to beach the boat; he was thinking of going out
+again after dinner, a matter of putting out a trawl which he would take
+up again the next morning. Would the senor accompany him? Febrer made a
+negative gesture, and the old man left him until the following day when
+he would awaken him from the beach singing the introit, while the stars
+still shimmered in the sky. Daybreak must find them at the Vedra.
+
+"Let us see how early you will come down from the tower!"
+
+The fisherman turned toward the mainland, his fish-basket hanging on his
+arm.
+
+"Give my regards to Margalida, Tio Ventolera, and tell her to have my
+dinner brought over right away."
+
+The sailor replied with a shrug of his shoulders without turning his
+face, and Jaime walked along the beach in the direction of the tower.
+His feet, shod in hempen sandals, crunched on the gravel at the edge of
+the wash from the surf. Among the azure pebbles were fragments of
+pottery; portions of earthen handles; concave pieces of bowls bearing
+vestiges of decoration, which had, perhaps, belonged to swelling urns;
+small, irregular spheres of gray clay in which one seemed to make out,
+despite the corrosion of the salt water, human features worn by the
+passing centuries. They were curious relics of days of storm;
+suggestions of the great secret of the sea, which had come to light
+after being hidden thousands of years; confused and legendary history
+returned by the restless waves to the shores of these islands, which had
+been the refuge in ancient times of Phoenicians and Carthaginians, of
+Arabs and Normans. Tio Ventolera told of silver coins, thin as wafers,
+found by boys at play on the beach. His grandfather remembered the
+tradition of mysterious caves containing treasure, caves of the Saracens
+and Normans, which had been walled in with heavy blocks of stone, and
+long forgotten.
+
+Jaime began to ascend the rocky slope leading to the tower. The
+tamarisk-shrubs stood erect like dwarf pines clothed in sharp and
+rustling foliage, which seemed to be nourished on the salt carried in
+the atmosphere, their roots embedded in the rock. The wind on stormy
+days, as it swept away the sand, left bare their multiple, entangled
+roots, black and slender serpents in which Febrer's feet were often
+caught. A sound of hurried flight and a crackling of leaves in the
+bushes answered to the echo of his footsteps, while a bunch of gray hair
+with a tail like a button scampered from bush to bush in blind haste.
+The startled rabbits roused dark emerald-colored lizards basking lazily
+in the sun.
+
+Together with these sounds there floated to Jaime's ears a faint
+drumming, and the voice of a man intoning an Ivizan romance. He
+hesitated from time to time as if undecided, repeating the same verses
+over and over until he managed to pass on to new ones, uttering at the
+end of each strophe, according to the custom of the country, a strange
+screech like a peacock, a harsh and strident trill like that which
+accompanies the songs of the Arabs.
+
+When Febrer gained the crest, he saw the musician sitting on a stone
+behind the tower, gazing at the sea.
+
+It was a youth he had met several times at Can Mallorqui, the house of
+his old renter, Pep. Resting on his thigh was the Ivizan tambourine, a
+small drum painted blue, decorated with flowers and gilded branches. His
+left arm was resting on the instrument, his chin in his hand, almost
+concealing his face. He beat the drum slowly with a little stick held in
+his right hand, and he sat motionless, in a reflective attitude, with
+his thoughts concentrated on his improvisation, peeping between his
+fingers at the immense horizon on the sea.
+
+He was called the Minstrel, as were all those in the island who sang
+original verses at dances and serenades. He was a tall young man,
+slender, and narrow shouldered, a youth not yet eighteen. As he sang he
+coughed, his slender neck swelled, and his face, of a transparent
+whiteness, flushed. His eyes were large, the eyes of a woman, prominent
+and rose-colored. He always wore gala costume; blue velvet trousers; the
+girdle, and the ribbon which served him as a cravat, were of a flaming
+red, and above this he wore a little feminine kerchief around his neck,
+with the embroidered point in front. Two roses were tucked behind his
+ears; his hair, lustrous with pomade, hung like a wavy fringe beneath a
+hat with a flowered band, which he wore thrust on the back of his head.
+Seeing these almost feminine adornments, the large eyes and the pale
+face, Febrer compared him to one of those anemic virgins who are
+idealized in modern art. But this virgin displayed a certain suggestive
+bulk protruding beneath his red belt. Undoubtedly it was one of the
+knives or pistols made by the ironworkers of the island; the inseparable
+companion of every Ivizan youth.
+
+Seeing Jaime, the Minstrel arose, leaving the tambourine hanging from
+his left arm by a strap, while he touched the brim of his hat with his
+right hand, still holding his drumstick.
+
+"Good-day to you!"
+
+Febrer, who, like a good Majorcan, had believed in the ferocity of the
+Ivizans, admired their courteous manners when he met them on the
+roadways. They committed murder among themselves, always on account of
+love affairs, but the stranger was respected with the same traditional
+scruples that the Arab possesses for the man who seeks hospitality
+beneath his tent.
+
+The Minstrel seemed ashamed that the Majorcan senor had surprised him
+near his house, on his own land. He had come because he liked to look at
+the sea from this height. He felt better in the shadow of the tower; no
+friend was near to disturb him, and he could freely compose the verses
+of a romance for the next dance in the town of _San Antonio_.
+
+Jaime smiled at the Minstrel's timid excuses, suggesting that perhaps
+the verses were dedicated to some maiden. The boy inclined his head.
+"Si, senor."
+
+"And who is she?"
+
+"Flower of the Almond," said the poet.
+
+"Flower of the Almond? A pretty name."
+
+Encouraged by the senor's approbation, the youth continued talking. The
+"Flower of the Almond" was Margalida, the daughter of senor Pep of Can
+Mallorqui. The Minstrel himself had given her this name, seeing her as
+white and beautiful as the flowers which the almond tree puts forth when
+the frosts are done and the first warm breezes blowing in from the sea
+announce the spring. All the youths roundabout repeated it, and
+Margalida was known by no other name. He had a certain gift for thinking
+of pretty sobriquets. Those which he gave lasted forever.
+
+Febrer listened to the boy's words with a smile. In what a strange
+creature had the muse taken refuge! He asked the youth if he worked, and
+the boy replied negatively. His parents did not wish him to do so; a
+doctor from the city had seen him in the market place one day and
+advised his family that he must avoid all fatigue; and he, pleased at
+such counsel, spent the working days in the country in the shade of a
+tree, listening to the songs of the birds, spying on the girls walking
+along the paths, and when some new verse rung in his head he sat down on
+the seashore to quietly work it out and fix it in his memory.
+
+Jaime took leave of him, saying that he might continue his poetic
+occupation, but a few steps away he stopped, turning his head at not
+hearing the tambourine again. The troubador was going down the hill,
+fearful of annoying the senor with his music, and seeking another
+solitary retreat.
+
+Febrer reached the tower. All that which from a distance seemed to
+belong to a lower story was massive foundation. The door was on a level
+with the elevated windows; thus the guards in early days could avoid
+being surprised by the pirates. For ingress and egress they made use of
+a ladder which they drew up after them at night. Jaime had ordered made
+a rude wooden ladder by which to reach his room, but he never drew it
+in. The tower, constructed of sandstone, was somewhat eroded on its
+exterior by the winds from the sea. Many stones had fallen from their
+places, and these hollows simulated steps for scaling the tower.
+
+The hermit ascended to his habitation. It was a round room with no other
+opening than the door and the window, which almost seemed to be tunnels,
+so great was the thickness of the walls. These, on the inside, were
+carefully whitewashed with the gleaming lime of Iviza, giving a
+transparency and milky softness to all the buildings, and to the modest
+little country houses the appearance of elegant mansions. Only on the
+ceiling, broken by a skylight, which told of the ancient ladder-way
+leading to the flat-roof above, did there remain any trace of the soot
+of the fires which used to be lighted in former days.
+
+Rough boards, crudely fastened to wooden cross-pieces, which served to
+reinforce them, were used for door, window-shutter, and ceiling
+trap-door. There was not a pane of glass in the tower. It was still
+summer, and Febrer, undecided, and, in truth, indifferent as to his
+future, put off the details of actually settling down until some other
+time.
+
+This retreat seemed to him romantic and pleasing, in spite of its
+crudity. He detected in it the skilful hand of Pep and the grace of
+Margalida. He noticed the whiteness of the walls, the neatness of three
+chairs and of the deal table, all scrubbed by the daughter of his former
+tenant. Fish nets were draped upon the walls like tapestry; beyond hung
+the gun and a bag of cartridges. Long, slender sea-shells with the brown
+translucency of the tortoise were arranged in the form of fans. They
+were the gift of Tio Ventolera, as were two enormous periwinkles on the
+table, white, with erect points, and the interior of a moist rose-color,
+like feminine flesh. Near the window his mattress lay rolled up with his
+pillow and sheets--a rustic bed which Margalida or her mother made every
+afternoon.
+
+Jaime slept there more peacefully than in his palace in Palma. When Tio
+Ventolera failed to awaken him at dawn by singing mass down on the beach
+or by climbing up the hill to fling stones at the door of the tower, the
+hermit rested on his mattress until late in the morning, listening to
+the music of the sea, the great crooning mother; watching the mysterious
+light, a mixture of golden sun and blue waters filtering through the
+cracks and trembling on the white walls; hearing the gulls scream
+outside, as they passed before the windows in joyous flight, flinging
+swift shadows within the room.
+
+At night he retired early and lay open-eyed in the diffused starry
+light, wakeful in the glint of the moon as it shimmered through the
+half-opened door. It was that half hour in which all the past appears
+supernatural; that forerunner of sleep, in which the remotest memories
+are revived. The sea roared, strident calls of the night birds broke the
+stillness, the gulls complained with a lament like tortured children.
+What were his friends doing now? What were they saying in the cafes of
+the Borne? Who might be in the Casino?
+
+In the morning these recollections brought a sad smile to his lips. The
+returning day seemed to gladden his life. Had he ever been like others
+who rejoiced in existence in the city? Here was where one could really
+live.
+
+He glanced over the interior of his round tower. It was a veritable
+salon, more agreeable to him than the house of his forefathers; this was
+all his own, free from the dread of co-ownership with money lenders and
+usurers. He even had handsome antiquities which no one could claim. Near
+the door was a pair of amphorae, drawn up by fishermen's nets--whitish
+earthern jars with pointed bases, indurated by the sea and capriciously
+decorated by Nature with garlands of adhering shells. In the center of
+the table, between the periwinkles, was another gift from Tio Ventolera,
+a terra cotta female head with a strange round tiara crowning her
+braided hair. The grayish clay was dotted with little, hard spherical
+concretions formed while lying for centuries in the salt water. As Jaime
+gazed at this companion of his solitude his imagination pierced the
+harsh outer crust and he recognized the serenity of feature, the
+strangeness and mystery of the almond-shaped, Oriental eyes. It appeared
+to him as to no one else. His long hours of silent contemplation had
+brushed away the mask, the work of centuries.
+
+"Look at her! She is my sweetheart," he had said one morning to
+Margalida while she was cleaning his room. "Isn't she beautiful? She
+must have been a princess of Tyre or of Ascalon, I am not sure which;
+but the thing of which I am sure is that she was destined for me, that
+she loved me four thousand years before I was born, and that she has
+come down through the ages to seek me. She owned ships, robes of purple
+and palaces with terraced gardens, but she abandoned all to hide in the
+sea, waiting dozens of centuries for a wave to bear her to this coast so
+that Tio Ventolera might find her and bring her home to me. Why do you
+stare at me like that? You, poor child, cannot comprehend these things."
+
+Margalida did, indeed, look at him in surprise. Imbued with her father's
+respect for this high-caste gentleman, she could only imagine him
+talking seriously. What things he must have seen in this world!
+
+Now his words about this millenial sweetheart shook her credulity,
+causing her to smile nervously, while at the same time she looked with
+superstitious fear at the great lady of forgotten centuries who was
+nothing but a terra cotta head. How could Don Jaime talk like that?
+Everything about him was strange!
+
+Whenever Febrer climbed up to the tower he sat down near the doorway and
+looked across the landscape. At the base of the hill spread recently
+ploughed fields, wooded areas belonging to Febrer which Pep was clearing
+for cultivation. Then began the plantations of almonds, of a fresh green
+color, and the ancient and twisted olive trees, which lifted up their
+dark trunks with tufted branches bearing silver gray leaves. The house,
+Can Mallorqui, was a sort of Moorish dwelling, a cluster of buildings,
+all as square as dice, dazzling white, and flat-roofed. New white
+buildings had been added as the family increased, and as its necessities
+were augmented. Each of the dice constituted one room, and, taken
+together, they formed a house, which resembled an Arabian village. From
+without no one could guess which were the living rooms and which the
+stables.
+
+Beyond Can Mallorqui lay the grove, and the high-banked terraces,
+separated by thick stone walls. The strong winds did not suffer the
+trees to grow tall, so they put out many luxuriant branches round about
+them, gaining in width what they lost in height. The branches of all the
+trees were upheld by numerous forked sticks. Some of the fig trees had
+hundreds of supports and spread out like an immense green tent ready to
+shelter sleeping giants. They were natural summer-houses in which nearly
+a whole tribe might be sheltered. The horizon in the background was shut
+out by pine-clad mountains, having here and there red, barren spots.
+Columns of smoke rose out of the dark foliage from the pits of the
+charcoal burners.
+
+Febrer had now been on the island three months. His arrival had
+astonished Pep Arabi, who was still busy telling his friends and
+relatives of his stupendous adventure, his unheard of daring, his recent
+voyage to Majorca with his children, his few hours in Palma, and his
+visit to the Palace of the Febrers, a place of enchantment, which held
+within its confines all the luxurious and regal splendor that existed in
+the world. Jaime's brusque declarations had astonished the peasant less.
+
+"Pep, I am ruined; you are rich compared to me. I have come to live in
+the tower; I don't know how long; perhaps forever."
+
+He entered into the details of getting settled in his new quarters while
+Pep smiled with an incredulous air. Ruined! All great gentlemen said the
+same thing, but what was left them in their misfortune was enough to
+enrich many poor men. They were like the vessels shipwrecked off
+Formentera, before the government established lighthouses. The people of
+Formentera, a lawless and God-forsaken crowd--they were natives of a
+smaller island--used to light bonfires to decoy the sailors, and when
+the ship was lost to them it was not lost to the islanders, for its
+spoils made many of them rich.
+
+A Febrer poor? Pep would not accept the money Febrer offered him. He was
+going to cultivate some of the senor's lands; they would settle accounts
+some other time. Since he was determined to live in the tower Pep worked
+hard to make it habitable, besides ordering his children to carry the
+senor's dinner to him whenever he did not feel like coming down to the
+table.
+
+These three months had been rustic isolation to Jaime. He did not write
+a letter, nor open a newspaper, nor read any book, except the half dozen
+volumes he had brought from Palma. The city of Iviza, as tranquil and
+dreamy as a town in the interior of the Peninsula, seemed to him a
+remote capital. Probably Majorca and the other great cities he had
+visited no longer existed. During the first month of his new life an
+extraordinary event disturbed his placid tranquillity. A letter came; an
+envelope bearing the mark of one of the cafes in the Borne and a few
+lines in large, crude script. It was Toni Clapes who had written. He
+wished him much joy in his new existence. In Palma everything was as
+usual. Pablo Vails did not write because he was angry with Febrer for
+going away without bidding him good-bye. Still he was a good friend, and
+he was busy disentangling Jaime's business affairs. He had a diabolical
+cleverness for that sort of thing--a Chueta, in fact! He would write
+more later.
+
+Two months had gone by without the arrival of another letter. What did
+he care about news from a world to which he should never return? He did
+not know what destiny had in store for him; he did not even wish to
+think of it; hither he had come and here he would stay, with no other
+pleasures than hunting and fishing, enjoying an animal-like ease, having
+no other ideas or desires than those of primitive man.
+
+He dwelt apart from Ivizan life, not mingling in their doings. He was a
+gentleman among peasants; a stranger! They treated him respectfully, but
+it was a frigid respect.
+
+The traditional existence of these rude and somewhat ferocious people
+held for him that attraction which the extraordinary and the vigorous
+always exerts. The island, thrown upon its own resources, had been
+compelled century after century to face Norman pirates, Moorish sailors,
+galleys from Castile, ships from the Italian republics, Turkish,
+Tunisian, and Algerian vessels, and in more recent times, the English
+buccaneers. Formentera, uninhabited for centuries after having been a
+granary of the Romans, served as a treacherous anchorage for the hostile
+fleets. The churches were still veritable fortresses, with strong towers
+where the peasants took refuge on being warned by bonfires that enemies
+had landed. This hazardous life of perpetual danger and ceaseless
+struggle had produced a people habituated to the shedding of blood, to
+the defense of their rights, weapons in hand; the farmers and fishermen
+of the present day possessed the mentality of their ancestors, and kept
+up the same customs. There were no villages; there were houses scattered
+over many kilometers, with no other nucleus than the church and the
+dwellings of the curate and the alcalde. The only town was the capital,
+the one called in ancient documents the Royal Fortress of Iviza, with
+its adjacent suburb of La Marina.
+
+When a youth arrived at puberty his father summoned him into the kitchen
+of the farmhouse in the presence of all the family.
+
+"Now you are a man," he said solemnly, handing him a knife with a stout
+blade. The youthful paladin lost his filial shrinking. In future he
+would defend himself instead of seeking the protection of his family.
+Later, when he had saved some money he would complete his knightly
+trappings by purchasing a pocket-pistol with silver decorations, made by
+the ironworkers of the country, who had their forges set up in the
+forest.
+
+Fortified by possession of these evidences of citizenship, which he
+never laid aside as long as he lived, he associated with other youths
+similarly armed and the life of a swain with its courtings opened before
+him; serenades with the accompaniment of signal calls; dances,
+excursions to parishes that were celebrating the feast of their patron
+saint, where they amused themselves slinging stones at a rooster with
+unerring aim, and above all the festeigs, the traditional courtships
+when seeking a bride, the most respectable of customs, which gave
+occasion for fights and murders.
+
+There were no thieves on the island. Houses isolated in the heart of the
+country were often left with the key in the door during the absence of
+their owners. The men did not commit murder over questions of gain.
+Enjoyment of the soil was equitably divided, and the mildness of the
+climate and the frugality of the people made them generous and but
+mildly attached to material possessions. Love, only love, impelled men
+to kill each other. The rustic caballeros were impassioned in their
+predilections, and as fatal in their jealousy as heroes in novels. For
+the sake of a maiden with black eyes and brown hands they hunted and
+challenged each other in the darkness of night, with outcries of
+defiance; they sighted each other from afar with a howl before coming to
+blows. The modern pistol which fired but one shot seemed to them
+insufficient, and in addition to the cartridge they rammed in a handful
+of powder and balls. If the weapon did not burst in the hands of the
+aggressor, it was sure to make dust of the enemy.
+
+The courtings lasted for months and even for years. A peasant-farmer who
+had a daughter of suitable age for betrothal would see the youths of the
+district and others from all over the island offer themselves, for every
+Ivizan deemed it his privilege to court her. The father of the girl
+would count the suitors--ten, fifteen, twenty, sometimes even thirty.
+Then he would calculate the amount of time that could be devoted to the
+affair before he would be overcome by sleep, and, taking into account
+the number of aspirants, he divided it into so many minutes for each.
+
+At twilight they would gather from every direction for the courting,
+some in groups, humming to the accompaniment of clucking and a sort of
+whinnying, others alone, blowing on the bimbau, an instrument made of
+small sheets of iron, which buzzed like a hornet, serving to lull them
+into forgetfulness of the fatigue of the journey. They came from far
+away. Some walked three hours, and must travel as many back again,
+crossing from one end of the island to the other on the courting days
+which were Thursdays and Saturdays, for the sake of talking three
+minutes with a girl.
+
+In the summer they sat in the porchu, a kind of rural zaguan, or if it
+were winter they would go into the kitchen. The girl sat motionless on a
+stone bench. She had removed her straw hat with its long streamers that
+during the daytime gave her the air of an operetta shepherdess; she was
+dressed in gala attire, wearing the blue or green accordian-plaited
+skirt, which she kept during the remainder of the week compressed by
+cords, and hanging from the ceiling, in order to keep the plaiting
+intact. Under this she wore other and still other skirts; eight, ten or
+twelve petticoats, all the feminine clothing the house possessed, a
+solid funnel of wool and cotton that obliterated every sign of sex and
+made it impossible to image the existence of a fleshy reality beneath
+the bulk of cloth. Rows of filigree buttons glittered on the cuffs of
+her jacket; on her breast, crushed flat by a monastic corset which
+seemed made of iron, shone a triple chain of gold with its enormous
+links; from beneath the kerchief worn on the head hung her heavy braids
+tied with ribbons. On the bench, serving as a cushion for her voluminous
+body, made bulky by skirts, lay the abrigais, the feminine winter
+garment.
+
+The suitors deliberated over the question of precedence in the courting,
+and one after another they took their places at the girl's side,
+talking to her the allotted number of minutes. If one of them, becoming
+too enthusiastic in conversation, forgot his companions and trespassed
+on their time, they reminded him by coughs, furious glances, and
+threatening words. If he persisted, the strongest of the band would
+grasp him by the arm and drag him away so that another might take his
+place. Sometimes when there were many suitors and time was at a premium,
+the girl would talk with two at once, trying to display no preference.
+Thus the courting continued until she manifested predilection for a
+youth, often without regard for her parents' choice. In this short
+springtime of her life the woman was queen. After marriage she
+cultivated the soil alongside her husband and was little better than a
+beast.
+
+The rejected youths, if they felt no particular interest in the girls,
+would then retire, transferring their affections a few leagues farther
+on; but if they were really enamored, they would lurk about the house
+and the chosen one was forced to fight with his former rivals, achieving
+marriage only by a miracle after passing through a pathway strewn with
+knives and pistols.
+
+The pistol was like a second tongue to the Ivizan; at the Sunday dances
+he would fire off shots to demonstrate his amorous enthusiasm. On
+leaving his sweetheart's house, to give her and her family a sign of his
+appreciation, he was accustomed to fire a shot as he crossed the
+threshold, then calling out, "Good-night!" If, on the contrary, he went
+away offended and wished to insult the family, he would invert this
+order, first calling out, "Good-night," and shooting his pistol
+afterwards; but he was obliged in that case to rush out at full speed,
+for the members of the household promptly replied to the declaration of
+war with answering shots, with clubs, and with rocks.
+
+Jaime was living on the brink of this existence, burdened with its crude
+traditions, looking on from the outside at the Arabian customs which
+still prevailed in this lonely island. Spain, whose flag floated every
+Sunday over the few houses embraced within each parish, scarcely gave a
+thought to this bit of soil lost in the sea. Many countries of far-away
+Oceanica were in more frequent communication with the great centers of
+civilization than this island, in former times scourged by war and
+rapine, and now lying forsaken off the beaten track of ocean steamers,
+surrounded by a girdle of small, barren islets, reefs, and shallows.
+
+In his new round of life Febrer felt the joy of one who occupies a
+comfortable seat from which he may witness an interesting spectacle.
+These farmers and fishermen, the warlike descendants of corsairs, were
+pleasant companions for him. He pretended to look upon them from afar,
+but gradually their customs were captivating him, drawing him into
+similar habits. He had no enemies, and yet, in strolling about the
+island when he did not have his gun upon his shoulder, he carried a
+revolver hidden in his belt, ready for an emergency.
+
+In the early days of his life in the tower, as the exigencies of getting
+settled compelled him to go into the town, he dressed as in Majorca, but
+little by little he left off his cravat, his collar, his boots. For
+hunting he preferred the blouse and the velveteen trousers of the
+peasants. Fishing accustomed him to wearing hempen sandals for climbing
+rocks and for walking along the beach. A hat like that worn by the
+youths of the parish of San Jose covered his head.
+
+Pep's daughter, who was familiar with the island customs, admired the
+senor's hat with a kind of gratitude. The people of the different
+quarters, which formerly divided Iviza, were distinguished one from
+another by the style of wearing their head-dress and by the shape of the
+brim, almost imperceptible to any but a native of the island. Don Jaime
+wore his like the youths of San Jose, and unlike those worn by the
+inhabitants of other parishes. This was an honor for the parish of which
+she was a daughter.
+
+Ingenuous and pretty Margalida! Febrer enjoyed talking with her,
+delighting in her surprise at his jests and at his tales of other lands.
+
+She would be coming with his dinner any moment now. A slender column of
+smoke had been floating above the chimney of Can Mallorqui for half an
+hour. He imagined Pep's daughter flitting from place to place preparing
+his noonday meal, followed by the glances of her mother, a poor peasant
+woman, silent in her dullness, who did not venture to set her hand to
+anything pertaining to the senor.
+
+Any moment he might see her appear beneath the shadow of the porchu
+which gave entrance to the house, the dinner basket on her arm, her
+marvelously white face, which the sun slightly gilded with a faint tinge
+of old ivory, shaded by her straw hat with its long streamers.
+
+Someone was stepping into the shelter of the portico, beginning to climb
+up to the tower. It was Margalida! No, it was her brother Pepet, Pepet
+who had been in Iviza for a month preparing to enter the Seminary, and
+whom the people had on this account given the sobriquet of Capallanet,
+the Little Chaplain.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+ALMOND BLOSSOM
+
+
+"Good day to you!"
+
+Pepet spread a napkin over one end of the table and placed upon it two
+covered dishes and a bottle of wine which had the color and transparency
+of the ruby. Then he sat down on the floor, clasping his hands about his
+knees, and kept very still. His teeth shone like luminous ivory as a
+smile lighted his brown face. His mischievous eyes were fixed upon the
+senor with the expression of a happy, faithful dog.
+
+"You have been in Iviza studying to become a priest, have you not?"
+
+The boy nodded his head. Yes; his father had entrusted him to a
+professor in the Seminary. Did Don Jaime know where the Seminary was?
+
+The young peasant spoke of it as a remote place of torture. There were
+no trees; no liberty; scarcely any air; it was impossible to live in
+that prison.
+
+While listening to him Febrer recalled his visit to the elevated city,
+the Royal Fortress of Iviza, a dead town, separated from the district of
+Marina by a great wall, built in the time of Philip II, with its cracks
+now filled with waving green caper bushes. Headless Roman statues, set
+in three niches, decorated the gate, which opened from the city to the
+suburb. Beyond this the streets wound upward toward the hill occupied
+by the Cathedral and the fort; pavements of blue stone, along the center
+of which rushed a stream of filth; snowy facades half concealing beneath
+the whitewash escutcheons of the nobility and the outlines of ancient
+windows; the silence of a cemetery by the seashore, interrupted only by
+the distant murmur of the surf and the buzzing of flies above the
+stream. Now and then footsteps were heard along the pavement of the
+Moorish streets, and windows half opened with the eager curiosity
+aroused by some extraordinary event; a few soldiers climbing leisurely
+up to the castle on the hill; the canons coming down from the choir, the
+fronts of their cassocks shining with grease, their hats and mantles the
+color of a fly's wing, wretched prebendaries of a forgotten cathedral,
+too poor to support a bishop.
+
+On one of these streets Febrer had seen the Seminary, a long structure
+with white walls, and windows grilled like a jail. The Little Chaplain,
+as he thought of it, grew serious, the ivory flash of his smile
+vanishing from his chocolate-colored face. What a month he had spent
+there! The professor was driving away the tedium of the vacation by
+teaching this young peasant, wishing to initiate him into the beauties
+of Latin letters with the aid of his eloquence and a strap. He wished to
+make a prodigy of him by the time he took up his classes again, and the
+blows grew more frequent. Besides this were the window grilles, which
+allowed glimpses of nothing but the opposite wall; the barrenness of the
+city, where not a green leaf was to be seen; the tiresome walks
+accompanying the priest through that port of dead waters that smelled of
+putrid mussels, and was entered by no other ships than a few sailing
+vessels that occasionally came for a cargo of salt. The day before a
+still more vigorous strapping had exhausted his patience. The idea of
+beating him! If it had not been a priest who had ventured it he
+would----! He had run away, returning on foot to Can Mallorqui; but
+before leaving, he had taken revenge by tearing up several books which
+the maestro held in great esteem; he had upset the inkstand; and had
+written shameful inscriptions on the walls, with other pranks
+characteristic of a monkey at liberty.
+
+The night had been one of storm in Can Mallorqui. Pep was blind with
+fury, and had used a club upon his back until Margalida and her mother
+had been compelled to interfere.
+
+The boy's smile reappeared. He told with pride of the punishment he had
+taken from his father without uttering a cry. It was his father who was
+beating him, and a father could chastise because he loved his children;
+but should anyone else try to beat him, that person was doomed! As he
+said this he straightened himself with the belligerent air of a race
+accustomed to seeing blood flow and to administering justice with their
+own hands. Pep talked of taking his son back to the Seminary, but the
+boy put no faith in this threat. He would not go, even if his father
+tried to fulfill his vow of binding him with ropes and taking him on the
+back of a donkey like a sack of wheat; rather than that he would run
+away to the mountains or to the rock of Vedra and live with the wild
+goats.
+
+The master of Can Mallorqui had planned the future of his children
+high-handedly, with the energy of a rustic who gives no thought to
+obstacles when he believes he is doing right. Margalida should marry a
+peasant-farmer, and the house and land should be his. Pepet should be a
+priest, which would represent social ascension for the family, honor and
+fortune for them all.
+
+Jaime smiled as he listened to the boy's protests against his fate.
+There was no other center of learning on the island than the Seminary,
+and the peasants and shipowners who desired for their children a better
+fortune than their own, enrolled them there. The priests of Iviza! What
+an incongruous class! Many of them, while carrying on their studies, had
+taken part in the courtings, using knife and pistol. Descendants of
+corsairs and of soldiers, when they donned the cassock they still
+retained the arrogance and the rude virility of their forefathers. They
+were not lacking in piety, for their simplicity of mind did not permit
+of this, but neither were they devout and austere; they loved life with
+all its sweetness, and were attracted by danger with inherited
+enthusiasm. The island turned out hardy and venturesome priests. Those
+who remained in Spain became army chaplains. Others, more bold, no
+sooner had they sung their first mass than they embarked for South
+America, where certain republics boasting a large Catholic aristocracy
+were the Eldorado of Spanish priests who had no fear of the sea. They
+sent home generous sums of money to their families, and they bought
+houses and lands, praising God, who maintains his priests in greater
+ease in the new world than in the old. There were charitable senoras in
+Chile and Peru who gave a hundred pesos as a gratuity for a single mass.
+Such news made their relatives, gathered in the kitchen on winter
+nights, open their mouths in amazement. Despite such greatness, however,
+their most fervent desire was to return to the beloved isle, and after a
+few years they did so with the intention of ending their days on their
+own lands; but the demon of modern life had bitten deep into their
+hearts; they wearied of the monotonous insular existence, with its
+narrow limitations; they could not forget the new cities on the other
+continent, and finally they sold their property, or gave it to their
+family, and sailed away to return no more.
+
+Pep was indignant at the obstinacy of his son, who insisted upon
+remaining a peasant. He blustered about killing him, as if the boy were
+on the road to perdition. The son of his friend Treufoch had sent almost
+six thousand dollars home from America; another priest who lived in the
+interior among the Indians, in some very high mountains called the
+Andes, had bought a farm in Iviza that his father was now cultivating;
+and this rascal Pepet, who was more quick at letters than any of these,
+refused to follow such glorious examples! He ought to be killed!
+
+The night before, during a moment of calm, while Pep was resting in the
+kitchen with the weary arm and the sad mien of the father who has been
+wielding a heavy hand, the youth, rubbing his bruises, had proposed a
+compromise. He would become a priest; he would obey Senor Pep; but he
+wanted to be a man for a while first, to go out serenading with the
+other boys of the parish, go to the Sunday dances, join in the
+courtings, have a sweetheart, and wear a knife in his belt. This last
+desire was greatest of all. If his father would only give him his
+grandfather's knife he would put up with anything.
+
+"Grandfather's knife, father!" implored the boy. "Grandfather's knife!"
+
+For his grandfather's knife he would become a priest, and even if
+necessary live in solitude, on the alms of the people, as did the
+hermits on the seashore in the sanctuary of Cubells. As he thought of
+the venerable weapon his eyes glowed with admiration, and he described
+it to Febrer. A jewel! It was an antique steel blade, keen and
+burnished. He could cut through a coin with it, and in his grandfather's
+hands----! His grandfather had been a man of renown, a famous man. Pepet
+had never seen him, but he talked of him with admiration, giving him a
+higher place in his esteem than that evoked by his mediocre father.
+
+Then, spurred on by his desire, he ventured to implore Don Jaime's
+assistance. If only he would help him! If he should ask just once for
+the famous knife his father would immediately hand it to him.
+
+"You shall have the knife, my boy. If your father won't give you that
+one, I'll buy one for you the next time I go to the city," said Febrer
+good-naturedly.
+
+This filled the Little Chaplain with joy. It was necessary for him to go
+armed so that he could mingle with men. His house was soon to be visited
+by the bravest youths of the island. Margalida was now a woman, and the
+courting was going to begin. Senor Pep had been besieged by the young
+gallants, who demanded that he set the day and the hour for the suitors.
+
+"Margalida!" cried Febrer in surprise. "Margalida to have sweethearts!"
+
+The spectacle he had witnessed in so many other houses on the island
+seemed to him an absurdity for Can Mallorqui. He had not realized that
+Pep's daughter was a woman. Could that child, that pretty, white doll,
+really care for men? He felt the strange sensation of the father who has
+loved many women in his youth, but who, later in life, judging by his
+own lack of susceptibility, cannot understand his daughter's fondness
+for men.
+
+After a few moments of silence Margalida seemed changed in his eyes.
+Yes, she was a woman. The transformation pained him; he felt that he
+had lost something dear to him, but he resigned himself to reality.
+
+"How many suitors are there?" he asked in a low voice.
+
+Pepet waved one hand while at the same time he raised his eyes to the
+vaulted ceiling of the tower. How many? He was not sure yet; at least
+thirty. It was going to be such a courting as would make talk all over
+the island, despite the fact that many, although they devoured Margalida
+with their eyes, were afraid to join the courting, giving themselves up
+for conquered in advance. There were few like his sister on the island;
+trim, merry, and with a good slice of dowry, too, for Senor Pep let it
+be known everywhere that he intended leaving Can Mallorqui to his
+son-in-law when he died. And his son might burst with his cassock on his
+back over there on the other side of the ocean, without ever seeing any
+girls but Indian squaws! Futro!
+
+However, his indignation soon passed. He became enthusiastic thinking
+about the young men who were to gather at his house twice a week to make
+love to Margalida. They were coming even from as far away as San Juan,
+the other end of the island, the region of valiant men, where one
+avoided going out of the house after dark, well knowing that every
+hillock held a pistol and every tree was a lurking place for a firearm.
+They were capable, every man of them, of waiting for satisfaction for an
+injury committed years before--the home of the terrible "wild beasts of
+San Juan." Then, too, various notables would come from the other
+sections of the island, and many of them must walk leagues to reach Can
+Mallorqui.
+
+The Little Chaplain rejoiced at the thought of the arrogant youths with
+whom he was to become acquainted. They would all treat him like a chum
+because he was the brother of the bride to be; but of all these future
+friendships the one which most flattered him was that of Pere, nicknamed
+Ferrer, on account of his trade as an ironworker, a man about thirty,
+much talked about in the parish of San Jose.
+
+The boy looked upon him as a great artist. When he condescended to work
+he made the most beautiful pistols ever seen on the field of Iviza. Old
+barrels were sent to him from the Peninsula, and he mounted them to suit
+his fancy in stocks engraved with barbaric design, adding to the work
+ornate decorations of silver. A weapon of his make could be loaded to
+the muzzle without danger of bursting.
+
+A still more important circumstance increased his respect for Ferrer. He
+declared in a low voice, with a tone of mystery and respect, "Ferrer is
+a verro."
+
+A verro! Jaime was silent for a few moments, trying to coordinate his
+recollection of island customs. An expressive gesture from the Little
+Chaplain assisted his memory. A verro was a man whose valor was already
+demonstrated, one who has several proofs of the power of his hand, or
+the accuracy of his aim, rotting in the earth.
+
+That his kindred might not seem beneath Ferrer, Pepet recalled his
+grandfather's prowess. He had also been a verro, but the ancients knew
+how to do things better. The skill with which the grandfather settled
+his affairs was still remembered in San Jose; a stab with his famous
+knife, and his well-laid plans sufficed, for people were always found
+who were ready to swear they had seen him at the other end of the island
+at the very moment when his enemy lay writhing in mortal agony far
+away.
+
+Ferrer was a less fortunate verro. He had returned six months ago after
+having spent eight years in a prison on the Peninsula. He had been
+sentenced to fourteen, but he had received various exemptions. His
+reception was triumphal. A native of San Jose was returning from heroic
+exile! They must not fall behind the citizens of other parishes who
+received their verros with great demonstrations, and on the day of the
+arrival of the steamer even the most distant relatives of Ferrer, who
+composed half the town, went down to the port of Iviza to meet him, and
+the other half went out of pure patriotism. Even the alcalde joined in
+the expedition, followed by his secretary, to retain the sympathy of his
+political partisans. The gentlemen of the city protested with
+indignation at these barbaric and immoral customs of the peasantry,
+while men, women, and children assaulted the steamer, each striving to
+be first to press the hero's hand.
+
+Pepet described the verro's reception on his return to San Jose. He had
+been a member of the party, with its long line of carts, horses,
+donkeys, and pedestrians, looking as if an entire people were
+emigrating. The procession halted at every tavern and inn along the way,
+and the great man was regaled with jugs of wine, tid-bits of roasted
+sausage and glasses of figola, a liquor made of native herbs. They
+admired his new suit, a suit suggesting the fine senor which had been
+made to his order on leaving the penitentiary; they inwardly marveled at
+his ease of manner, at the princely and condescending air with which he
+greeted his old friends. Many of them envied him. What wonderful things
+a man learns when he leaves the island! There is nothing like travel!
+The former ironworker overwhelmed them all with boasts of his adventures
+on his homeward voyage. For several weeks thereafter the evening
+gatherings in the tavern were most interesting. The words of the verro
+were repeated from house to house throughout all the little homes
+scattered through the cuarton, every peasant finding some luster for his
+parish in these adventures of his fellow citizen.
+
+The Ironworker never wearied of praising the beauty of the penal
+establishment in which he had spent eight years. He forgot the misery
+and hardship he had endured there; he looked back upon it with that love
+for the past which colors one's recollections.
+
+He had been more fortunate than those poor wretches who are sent to the
+penitentiary on the plains of La Mancha, where the men have to carry up
+the water on their backs, suffering the torments of an Arctic cold.
+Neither had he been in the prisons of old Castile where snow whitens the
+courtyards and sifts in through the barred windows. He came from
+Valencia, from the penitentiary of Saint Michael of the Kings, "Niza,"
+as it was nicknamed by the habitual pensioners of these establishments.
+He spoke with pride of this house, just as a wealthy student recalls the
+years he has spent in an English or German university. Tall palm trees
+shaded the courtyards, their crested tops waving above the tiled roofs;
+standing in the window-grilles one could see extensive orchards, with
+the triangular white pediments of the farmhouses, and farther out
+stretched the Mediterranean, an immense blue expanse, behind which lay
+his native rock, the beloved isle; perhaps the breeze, laden with the
+salt smell and with the fragrance of vegetation, which filtered like a
+benediction through the malodorous cells of the penitentiary, had first
+passed over it. What more could a man desire! Life there was sweet; one
+dined regularly, and always had a hot meal; everything was orderly, and
+a man had only to obey and allow himself to be led. One made
+advantageous friendships; one associated with people of note, whom he
+would never have met had he remained on the island, and the Ironworker
+told of his friends with pride. Some had possessed millions, and had
+ridden in luxurious carriages there in Madrid, an almost fantastic city
+whose name rung in the ears of the islanders like that of Bagdad to the
+poor Arab of the desert listening to the tales of the "Thousand and One
+Nights;" others had overrun half the world before misfortune shut them
+up in this enclosure. Surrounded by an absorbed circle, the verro
+recounted the adventures of these associates in the lands of the
+negroes, or in countries where men were yellow, or green, and wore long
+womanish braids. In that ancient convent, as large as a town, dwelt the
+salt of the earth. Some of them had girded on swords and commanded men;
+others had been accustomed to handling papers bearing great seals and
+had interpreted the law. Even a priest had been a cell-companion of the
+Ironworker!
+
+The verro's admirers heard him with wide-open eyes and nostrils
+palpitating with emotion. What joy! To be a verro, to have gained
+celebrity and respect by killing an enemy in the darkness of night, and,
+as a recompense, eight years in "Niza," a place of honor and delight.
+How they envied such good luck!
+
+The Little Chaplain, who had listened to these tales, felt a great and
+enduring respect for the verro. He described the particulars of his
+person with the detail of one enamored of a hero.
+
+He was neither as tall nor as strong as the senor; he would scarcely
+come up to Don Jaime's ear, but he was agile, and nobody surpassed him
+in the dance: he could dance whole hours until he tired out every girl
+in the parish. From his long season at the prison he had returned with a
+pale and waxy complexion, the complexion of a cloistered nun; but now he
+was dark like everybody else, with his face bronzed and tanned by the
+sea air and the African sun of the island. He lived in the mountain, in
+a hut at the edge of the pine woods near the charcoal-makers, who
+supplied fuel for his forge. This he did not light every day. With his
+pretensions at being an artist, he worked only when he had to repair a
+fire-lock, to transform a flintlock into a rifle, or to make one of
+those silver decorated pistols which were the admiration of the Little
+Chaplain.
+
+The boy hoped that this man would be his sister's choice; that the
+verro, with his astonishing skill, would become a member of his family.
+
+"Maybe Margalida will like him, and then Ferrer will give me one of his
+pistols. What do you think, Don Jaime?"
+
+He plead the verro's cause as if he were already a relative. The poor
+fellow lived so wretchedly, alone in his shop with no other companion
+than an old woman always dressed in the black garb of long-past
+mourning; one of her eyes was watery, the other was shut. She would blow
+the bellows while her nephew hammered the red-hot iron. Ever working
+around the fire, she grew more bony and thin each day; the hollows of
+her eyes seemed to be turning into liquid in her old face, which was
+wrinkled like a withered apple.
+
+That gloomy, smoky den in the pine forest would be embellished by
+Margalida's presence. Its only decorations at present were a few small,
+colored rush baskets woven in the shape of checker-boards, adorned with
+silk pompons, a friendly token from the unfamed artists who whiled away
+the time in their retreat in "Niza." When his sister should live at the
+forge Pepet would go to see her, and he counted on acquiring through the
+munificence of his brother-in-law, a knife as famous as his
+grandfather's, that is, if Senor Pep unjustly persevered in refusing him
+this glorious heritage.
+
+The recollection of his father seemed to cloud the boy's hopes. He
+realized how difficult it would be for the master of Can Mallorqui to
+accept the Ironworker as a son-in-law; the old man could say no ill of
+him; he acknowledged his fame as an honor to the town. The island not
+only had brave men in "the wild beasts of San Juan," but San Jose could
+also gloat over valiant youths who had undergone trying tests; Ferrer,
+however, was little skilled in agricultural affairs, and although all
+the Ivizans showed themselves equally predisposed to cultivating the
+soil, to casting a net into the sea, or to landing a cargo of smuggled
+goods, along with other little industries, skipping easily from one kind
+of work to another, he desired for his daughter a genuine farmer, one
+accustomed all his life to scrabbling the earth. His resolution was
+unbreakable. In his empty and inflexible brain, when an idea sprouted it
+became so firmly imbedded that no hurricane nor cataclysm could uproot
+it. Pepet should be a priest, and should travel over the world.
+Margalida he was keeping for some farmer who should add to the lands of
+Can Mallorqui when he inherited them.
+
+The Little Chaplain thought eagerly of him who might be the one favored
+by Margalida. It would be a struggle for them all, having at their head
+a man like the Ironworker. Even if his sister should incline toward
+another, the fortunate one would be compelled to settle accounts with
+Pere, the glorious desperado, and must put him out of the way. Great
+things were going to be seen. The courting of Margalida was already
+discussed in every house in the cuarton; her fame would spread
+throughout the whole island; and Pepet smiled with ferocious delight
+like a young savage on his way to a massacre.
+
+He looked up to Margalida, acknowledging her as a greater authority than
+his father for the reason that his respect was not based on fear of
+blows. She it was who managed the house; everyone obeyed her. Even her
+mother walked in her footsteps like a serving woman, not venturing to do
+anything without consulting her. Senor Pep hesitated before making a
+decision, scratching his forehead with a gesture of doubt and murmuring,
+"I must consult the girl about that." The Little Chaplain himself, who
+had inherited the paternal obstinacy, quickly yielded at his sister's
+slightest word, a gentle insinuation from her smiling lips uttered in
+her sweet voice.
+
+"The things she knows, Don Jaime!" said the boy with admiration, and he
+enumerated her talents, dwelling with a certain respect on her skill in
+singing.
+
+"Do you know the Minstrel, the sick boy, Don Jaime? He has trouble with
+his chest. He cannot work, and he spends his time lying in the shade
+thumping on a tambourine and mumbling verses. He's a white lamb, a
+chicken, with eyes and skin like a woman's, incapable of standing up
+before a brave man. He aspires to Margalida, too," but the Little
+Chaplain swore that he would smash the tambourine over his head before
+he would accept him as a brother-in-law. He would only claim as a
+relative of his a hero. Yet, as for making up songs and singing them
+interspersed with cries like the peacock's, there was no one to equal
+the Minstrel. One should be just, and Pepet recognized the youth's
+merit. He was a glory to the cuarton, almost to be compared with the
+valorous Ironworker. At the summer gatherings on the porchu of the
+farmhouse, or at the Sunday dances, Margalida, blushing, urged on by her
+companions, would sometimes take a seat in the center of the circle,
+and, the tambourine on her knee, her eyes hidden behind a kerchief,
+would reply with a long romance of her own invention to the rhymes of
+the troubadour.
+
+If, some Sunday, the Minstrel intoned a long harangue about the perfidy
+of woman and how dear her fondness for dress cost man, the following
+Sunday Margalida would reply with a romanza twice as long, criticizing
+the vanity and egoism of the men, while the crowd of girls chorused her
+verses with cluckings of enthusiasm, glorying in having an avenger in
+the girl of Can Mallorqui.
+
+"Pepet!... Pepet!..."
+
+A feminine voice sounded in the distance like a crystal, breaking the
+dense silence of the early afternoon hours vibrant with heat and light.
+The voice grew stronger, as if approaching the tower.
+
+Pepet changed from the position of a young animal at rest, freeing his
+legs from his encircling arms, and sprang to his feet. It was Margalida
+calling him. No doubt his father needed him for some task, and he had
+made a long visit.
+
+Jaime grasped his arm.
+
+"Wait, let her come," he said, smiling. "Pretend you don't hear her."
+
+The Little Chaplain's lustrous teeth glistened in his bronzed face. The
+young imp was pleased at this innocent duplicity, and he took advantage
+of it by speaking to the senor with bold confidence.
+
+"You will really ask Senor Pep for it--for my grandfather's knife?"
+
+"Yes, you shall have it," said Jaime. "Or if your father will not give
+it to you I will buy you the best one I can find in Iviza."
+
+The boy rubbed his hands, his eyes glowing with savage joy.
+
+"Having that will make a man of you," continued Febrer, "but you must
+not use it! Just a decoration, nothing else."
+
+Eager to realize his desire at once, Pepet replied with energetic
+nodding of his head. Yes, a decoration, nothing else! Yet his eyes
+darkened with a cruel doubt. A decoration it might be, but if anyone
+should offend him while he had such a companion, what ought a man to do?
+
+"Pepet!"
+
+The crystal voice now rung out several times at the foot of the tower.
+Febrer waited for her coming, hoping to see Margalida's head, and then
+her figure, appear in the doorway; but he waited in vain; the voice grew
+more insistent, with pretty quavers of impatience.
+
+Febrer peeped through the doorway and saw the girl standing at the foot
+of the stairs, in her full blue skirt and her straw hat with its
+streamers of flowered ribbons. The broad brim of her hat seemed to form
+an aureole around the rose-pale face in which trembled the dark drops of
+her eyes.
+
+"Greeting, Almond Blossom!" called Febrer, smiling, but with hesitation
+in his voice.
+
+Almond Blossom! As the girl heard this name on the senor's lips a flush
+of color momentarily overspread the soft whiteness of her face.
+
+Had Don Jaime heard that name? But did such a gentleman interest himself
+in nonsense of that kind?
+
+Now Febrer saw nothing but the crown and brim of Margalida's hat. She
+had lowered her head, and in her confusion stood fingering the corners
+of her apron, abashed, like a girl listening to the first words of love,
+and suddenly realizing the significance of life.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+LOVE AND DANCING
+
+
+The next Sunday morning Febrer took a trip to town. Tio Ventolera could
+not go fishing with him, for he considered his presence at mass
+indispensable, that he might respond to the priest with his shrill
+voice.
+
+Having nothing else to do, Jaime started for the pueblo, walking along
+the paths in the red earth which stained his white hempen sandals. It
+was one of the last days of summer. The snowy white farmhouses seemed to
+reflect the African sun like mirrors. Swarms of insects buzzed in the
+air. In the green shade of the spreading fig trees, low and round, like
+roofs of verdure resting on their circle of supports, figs opened by the
+heat, fell, flattening on the ground like enormous drops of purple
+sugar. Prickly pears raised their thorny, wall-like trunks on either
+side of the road, and among their dusty roots whisked flexible, little
+animals, with long emerald green tails, intoxicated by the sun.
+
+Through the dark and twisted columns of the olive and almond trees
+groups of peasants, also on their way to town, could be seen in the
+distance, following other paths. The girls in their Sunday gowns walked
+in advance, wearing red or white kerchiefs and green skirts, their gold
+chains glittering in the sun; near them walked the suitors, a tenacious
+and hostile escort that disputed for every glance or word of
+preference, several of them laying siege to the girl at the same time.
+The procession was closed by the girls' parents, aged before their time
+by the hardships and cares of country life, poor beasts of the soil,
+submissive, resigned, black of skin, with their limbs as dry as
+vineshoots, and who, in the dullness of their minds, looked back upon
+their years of courting as a vague and remote springtime.
+
+Febrer turned in the direction of the church when he reached the
+village, which consisted of six or eight houses with the alcalde's
+office, the school and the tavern, grouped about the temple of worship.
+This rose stately and imposing, the band of union of all the dwellings
+scattered through mountains and valleys for some kilometers roundabout.
+
+Removing his hat to wipe the perspiration from his brow, Jaime took
+refuge beneath the arcade of a small cloister before the church. Here he
+experienced the sensation of well being as does the Arab when, after a
+journey across the burning sands, he takes asylum with the lonely
+hermit.
+
+The snowy exterior of the whitewashed church with its cool arcade and
+its walled terraces crowned with nopals, reminded him of an African
+mosque. It had more resemblance to a fortress than a temple. Its roofs
+were concealed by the upper edge of the walls, a kind of redoubt over
+which fire-locks and catapults had frequently peered. The tower was a
+military turret still crowned with merlons. Its old bell had pealed
+forth with feverish clangor of alarm in other times.
+
+This church, in which the peasants entered life with baptism and left it
+with the mass for the dead, had for centuries been their refuge in time
+of stress, their fortress of defense. When the atalayas on the coast
+announced with fires or smoke the approach of a Moorish vessel,
+families streamed to the temple from all the farmhouses in the parish;
+men carrying guns, women and children driving asses and goats or bearing
+on their backs all the fowls of their barnyards, their feet tied
+together like a bundle of faggots. The house of God was converted into a
+stable for the property of His followers. Off in one corner the priest
+prayed with the women, his prayers interrupted by screams of anguish and
+by crying children, while the fusileers on the roof explored the horizon
+until word came that the sea birds of prey had sailed away. Then normal
+existence began again, each family returning to its isolation, with the
+certainty of being compelled to repeat the agonizing journey within a
+few weeks.
+
+Febrer continued standing under the arcade, watching the hurrying groups
+of peasants, spurred forward by the last stroke of the bell whirling in
+the tower-loft. The church was almost full. A dense effluvium of hot
+breath, perspiration, and coarse clothing floated out to Jaime through
+the half-open door. He felt a certain sympathy for these good people
+when he met them singly, but in a crowd they aroused aversion, and he
+kept away.
+
+Every Sunday he came to the pueblo and stood in the doorway of the
+church. The loneliness of his tower on the coast made it necessary to
+see his fellow men. Besides, Sunday was, for him, a man without
+occupation, a monotonous, wearisome, interminable day. This day of rest
+for others was for him a torment. He could not go fishing for lack of a
+boatman, and the solitary fields, with their closed houses, the families
+being at mass or at the afternoon dance, gave him the painful impression
+of a stroll through a cemetery. He would spend the morning in San Jose,
+and one of his diversions consisted in standing under the arcade of the
+church watching the coming and going of the crowd, enjoying the cool
+shade of the cloister, while a few steps away the soil was burning in
+the sun. The branches of the trees writhed as if agonized by the heat
+and by the dust covering their leaves, and the hot air stifled one as it
+was drawn into the lungs.
+
+Belated families began to arrive, passing Febrer with a glance of
+curiosity and a diffident greeting. Everyone in the cuarton knew him;
+they were kind folk, who, on seeing him out in the country opened their
+doors to him, but their affability went no further, for they could not
+get near to him. He was a "foreigner"; moreover a Majorcan! The fact of
+his being a gentleman aroused a vague distrust in the rustic people, who
+could not understand his living in the lonely tower.
+
+Febrer remained solitary. He could hear the ringing of a little bell,
+the rustle of the crowd as the people knelt or struggled up to their
+feet, and a familiar voice, the voice of Tio Ventolera, giving the
+responses in sing-song tones, with the harsh stridor of his toothless
+mouth. The people accepted the old man's officious interference without
+a smile, attributing it to senile aberration. They had been accustomed
+for years and years to hearing the Latin jargon of the old sailor, who
+from his pew supported the responses of the assistant in a loud voice.
+They attributed a certain sacred character to these vagaries, like the
+Orientals who see in dementia a sign of piety.
+
+Jaime lighted a cigarette to help while away the time. Doves were cooing
+on the arches, breaking the long silences with their tender calls. Jaime
+had cast, one after another, three cigarette stubs on the ground near
+his feet before a long drawn out murmur came from within the church, as
+from a thousand suspended breaths which finally exhaled a sigh of
+satisfaction. Then a noise of footsteps, scraping of chairs, creaking of
+benches, dragging of feet, and the doorway was thronged by people, all
+trying to crowd out at once.
+
+The faithful exchanged friendly greetings as if they saw one another for
+the first time as they met out in the sunshine beyond the dim light of
+the temple.
+
+"Bon dia! Bon dia!"
+
+The women came out in groups; the elder ones dressed in black, emitting
+a stale odor from their innumerable skirts and petticoats; the young
+ones erect in rigid corsets which crushed their breasts and obliterated
+the prominent curves of their hips, displaying with stately pride, above
+the motley hued handkerchiefs, gold chains and enormous crucifixes.
+There were brown faces and olive, with great eyes of dramatic
+expression; coppery virgins with glossy, oily hair divided by a part
+which their rough combing was ever widening.
+
+The men stopped in the doorway to adjust upon their tonsured heads the
+kerchief worn in womanish fashion under their hats, below which fell
+long curls over their foreheads. It was a relic of the ancient haick, or
+Arabian hood, now worn only on extraordinary occasions.
+
+Then the old men drew from their belts their rustic, home-made pipes,
+filling them with the tobacco of the pota, an acrid herb which was
+cultivated on the island. The young men strolled from the porch and
+adopted ferocious attitudes, their hands in their belts, and their heads
+held high, before the groups of women, among which were the beloved
+atlotas, the marriageable girls, who feigned indifference, but at the
+same time peeped at them out of the corners of their eyes.
+
+Gradually the mass of people scattered.
+
+"Bon dia! Bon dia!"
+
+Many of them would not meet until the following Sunday. Along every path
+walked multi-colored groups; some dark, without any escort, moving
+slowly, as if dragging themselves along in the misery of old age; others
+energetic, with rustling skirts and fluttering kerchiefs, followed by a
+troop of boys, who shouted, whinnied like colts, and ran back and forth
+to attract the girls' attention.
+
+Febrer saw a few black-clad figures leave the church, a somber group of
+shawled women, each affording a glimpse through the opening in the
+mantle of a nose reddened by the sun, and of one eye swimming in tears.
+They were covered by the abrigais, the winter shawl, the coarse wool
+wrap of ancient usage, the very sight of which on that sultry summer
+morning aroused sensations of torment and asphyxia. Then followed some
+hooded men, old peasants wearing the ceremonial cape, a gray garment of
+coarse wool, with broad sleeves and tight hood. The sleeves were loose
+and the hood was fastened under the chin, showing their brown,
+pirate-like faces.
+
+They were relatives of a peasant who had died the week before. The large
+family, which dwelt in different parts of the cuarton, had gathered,
+according to custom, at the Sunday mass to honor the deceased, and when
+they saw one another they gave vent to their grief with African
+vehemence, as if the corpse still lay before their eyes. Tradition
+demanded that they cover themselves with the ceremonial garments, their
+winter dress serving to shut them up as it were in casques of mourning.
+They wept and perspired inside their wraps, and as each recognized a
+relative whom he had not seen for several days, his grief burst forth
+anew. Sighs of agony issued from within the heavy wrappings; the rude
+faces framed by the hood wrinkling and emitting howls like sick babies.
+They expressed their grief by melting into an incessant flood of mingled
+perspiration and tears. From every nose, the most visible part of these
+grief-struck phantoms, trembled drops which fell upon the folds of their
+heavy garments.
+
+In the midst of the clamor of feminine voices, hoarse with pain, and the
+masculine lamentations sharpened by grief, a man began to speak with
+kindly authority, demanding calm. It was Pep, of Can Mallorqui, a
+far-off connection of the dead man. In this island where everyone was
+more or less united by ties of blood, the distant relationship, although
+it required that he participate in the mourning, did not oblige him to
+don the haik worn on solemn occasions. He was dressed in black, and
+covered with a light wool mantle and a round felt hat that gave him a
+certain ecclesiastic air. His wife and Margalida, who did not consider
+themselves related to this family, stood at a distance, as if their
+bright Sunday apparel set them apart from this show of affliction.
+
+Good natured Pep pretended to be angry at the extremes of despair which
+were growing more and more vehement. Enough, enough! Let everyone return
+to his house, and live many years commending the dead to God's mercy.
+
+The weeping grew louder beneath the shawls and hoods. Adios! Adios! They
+clasped each other's hands, they kissed each other's lips, they twisted
+each other's arms, as if saying farewell never to meet again. Adios!
+Adios! They departed in groups, each taking a different direction,
+toward the pine-covered mountains, toward the distant white farmhouses
+half hidden among fig and almond trees, toward the red rocks along the
+shore, and it was an absurd and incongrouous spectacle to see these
+heavy perspiring images, these tireless mourners, marching slowly
+through the resplendent green fields.
+
+The return to Can Mallorqui was sad and silent. Pepet led the way, the
+bimbau between his lips buzzing like a gad-fly. From time to time he
+stopped to throw a stone at a bird or at a puffed-up black lizard
+darting among the opuntia cactus. Little impression did death make upon
+him! Margalida walked at her mother's side, silent, abstracted, her eyes
+opened very wide, beautiful bovine eyes, which looked in every direction
+reflecting not a single thought. She seemed to forget that behind her
+was Don Jaime, the senor, the revered guest of the tower.
+
+Pep, also abstracted, addressed an occasional word to Febrer, as if he
+felt need of one with whom to share his feelings.
+
+"What an ugly thing is death, Don Jaime! Here we are, in a bit of land
+surrounded by the waters, unable to escape, unable to defend ourselves,
+awaiting the moment for the final weighing of the anchor."
+
+The peasant's egoism rebelled at this injustice. It was all very well
+that over there on the mainland, where people are happy and enjoy life,
+Death should show himself; but here--here, too, in this far-away corner
+of the world, was there no limit, no exemption from the great meddler?
+It was useless to think of obstacles against Death's coming. The sea
+might be raging along the chain of islands and reefs lying between Iviza
+and Formentera; the narrow channels might be boiling caldrons, the rocks
+crowned with foam, and the rude men of the sea might acknowledge
+themselves vanquished and seek safety in the harbors, the passage might
+be closed against every living thing, the islands shut off from the rest
+of the world, but this signified nothing to the invincible mariner with
+the hairless head, to him who walks with fleshless legs, who rushes with
+gigantic strides over mountain and sea. No storm could detain him; no
+joy could make him forget; he was everywhere; he remembered everyone.
+The sun might shine, the fields might be in the fullness of their glory,
+the crops bountiful--they were deceptions to divert man in his tasks and
+to make these more endurable! Deceitful promises, like those made to
+children, so that they will submit to the torments of school!
+Nevertheless, one must allow himself to be deceived; the lie was good;
+one must not dwell upon this inevitable ill, this ultimate danger for
+which there was no remedy, and which saddened life, depriving the bread
+of its relish, the liquid of the grape of its merry sparkle, the white
+cheese of its succulency, the open fig of its sweetness, and the roasted
+sausage of its piquant strength, overshadowing and embittering all the
+good things that God has put on the island for the enjoyment of worthy
+people. "Ah, Don Jaime, what misery!"
+
+Febrer dined at Can Mallorqui to save Pep's children the climb up to the
+tower. The meal was begun in gloom, as if the lamentations of the hooded
+creatures on the porch of the church still vibrated in their ears; but
+gradually around the little low table, crowned with its great bowl of
+rice, joy began to spread. The Little Chaplain talked of the afternoon
+dance, absolutely forgetting his life in the Seminary, and venturing to
+meet Pep's eyes. Margalida recalled the Minstrel's glances and the
+Ironworker's arrogant mien when she had walked past the youths on her
+way to mass. Her mother sighed.
+
+"Alas, senor! alas, senor!"
+
+She never said more than this, accompanying her confused thoughts of
+joy or of sorrow with the same exclamation.
+
+Pep had made numerous attacks upon the wine-jug filled with the rosy
+juice of grapes from the very vines which spread a leafy screen before
+the porch. His melancholy face was flushed with a merry light. "To the
+Devil with Death and all fear of him!"
+
+Should an honorable man spend his whole life trembling at thought of
+Death's approach? Let him present himself whenever he wished! Meanwhile,
+let a man live! And he manifested this desire to live by falling asleep
+on a bench, and by loud snoring, which did not avail to frighten away
+the flies and wasps whirling about his mouth.
+
+Febrer returned to his tower. Margalida and her brother barely noticed
+the senor. They had left the table that they might more freely discuss
+the dance, with the light-heartedness of children who were disturbed by
+the presence of a serious person.
+
+In the tower he threw himself upon his couch and tried to sleep. All
+alone! He reflected upon his isolation, surrounded by people who
+respected him, who, perhaps, even loved him, but at the same time felt
+in irresistible attraction for their simple pleasures which were insipid
+to him. What a torment these Sundays were! Where should he go? What
+could he do?
+
+In his determination to while away the time, to seek relief from an
+existence wanting in immediate purpose, he at last fell asleep. He awoke
+late in the afternoon when the sun was beginning slowly to descend
+beyond the line of islands in a shower of pale gold which seemed to
+impart to the waters a deeper and intenser blue.
+
+On going down to Can Mallorqui he found the farmhouse closed. Nobody!
+His footsteps did not even arouse the dog that lived under the porch.
+The vigilant animal had also gone to the fiesta with the family.
+
+"They've all gone to the dance," thought Febrer. "Suppose I go to the
+pueblo myself!"
+
+He hesitated for awhile. What could he do there? He detested these
+diversions in which the presence of a stranger aroused animosity among
+the peasants. They preferred to remain by themselves. Should he, at his
+age, and with his austere appearance, that inspired only respect and
+chill, go and dance with an island maiden? He would have to keep near
+Pep and the other men, breathing the odor of native tobacco, discussing
+the almond crop and the possibility of a frost, making an effort to
+bring his mind down to the level of these peasant farmers.
+
+At last he decided to go. He dreaded solitude. Rather than spend the
+rest of the afternoon alone he preferred the dull, monotonous,
+conversation of the simple folk, a restful conversation, he said to
+himself, which did not compel him to think, and which left his mind in a
+state of sweet, animal calm.
+
+Near San Jose he saw the Spanish flag floating over the roof of the
+alcalde's office, while the hollow beating of a drum, the bucolic
+quavering of a flute, and the snapping of castanets, reached his ears.
+
+The dance took place in front of the church. The young people were
+formed into groups, standing near the musicians, who occupied low seats.
+The drummer, with his round instrument resting on one knee, beat the
+parchment with rhythmical strokes, while his companion blew on a long,
+wooden flute, carved with primitive designs. The Little Chaplain was
+flipping castanets as enormous as the shells brought in by Tio
+Ventolera.
+
+The girls, their arms about each other's waists, or leaning against
+their shoulders, glanced with modest hostility at the young men, who
+strutted through the center of the plaza, hands in belts, broad felt
+hats thrust back to show the curls hanging over their foreheads,
+embroidered kerchiefs or ribbon cravats around their necks, wearing
+sandals of immaculate whiteness, almost concealed by the bell of the
+velveteen trousers cut in the shape of an elephant's foot.
+
+At one side of the plaza, seated on a hummock or on chairs from the
+nearby tavern, were the mothers and old women; matrons anemic and
+saddened in their relative youth by excessive procreation and the
+hardships of rural life, with eyes sunken in a blue circle that seemed
+to reveal internal disorders, wearing on their breasts the gold chains
+of their youthful days, their sleeves decorated with silver buttons. The
+old women, coppery and wrinkled, wearing dark dresses, sighed grievously
+at sight of the merriment among the young girls and boys.
+
+After gazing for some time at these people who scarcely yielded him a
+glance, he placed himself beside Pep in a circle of old peasants. They
+received the gentleman from the tower with respectful silence, and after
+puffing a few mouthfuls of smoke from pipes filled with native tobacco,
+they resumed their stupid conversation about the probable severity of
+the approaching winter and the prospects of the coming crop of almonds.
+
+The drum continued beating, the flute shrilled, the enormous castanets
+clanked, but not a couple sprang into the center of the plaza. The
+swains seemed to confer with indecision, as if each were afraid to
+venture first. Besides, the unexpected presence of the Majorcan
+gentleman somewhat intimidated the bashful girls.
+
+Jaime felt someone nudge his elbow. It was the Little Chaplain, who
+whispered mysteriously into his ear, at the same time pointing with a
+finger: "There's Pere the Ironworker, the famous verro." He designated a
+youth of less than medium stature, but arrogant and ostentatious in his
+appearance. The young men were grouped around the hero. The Minstrel was
+talking animatedly with him, and he was listening with condescending
+gravity, spitting through his half-open lips, and admiring himself for
+the distance to which he sent the stream of saliva.
+
+Suddenly the Little Chaplain sprang into the center of the plaza,
+flourishing his hat. What, were they going to spend the whole afternoon
+listening to the flute without dancing? He ran to the group of damsels
+and grasped the biggest one by the hands, dragging her after him: "You!"
+he called. This was invitation enough. The more rudely he slapped her
+arm the greater was the compliment.
+
+The mischievous youth stood facing his partner, an arrogant and ugly
+girl with coarse hands, oily hair, and swarthy face, nearly a head
+taller than himself. Suddenly turning toward the musicians, the boy
+protested. He did not want to dance the "llarga"; he wanted to dance the
+"curta." The "long" and the "short" were the only two dances known on
+the island. Febrer had never been able to distinguish between them--a
+simple variation of rhythm, otherwise the music and the step seemed
+identical.
+
+The girl, with one arm bent against her waist in the form of a handle,
+and the other hanging down, began to whirl slowly. She had nothing else
+to do; this was her entire dance. She lowered her eyes, curled her lips
+as if performing a vigorous task, and with a gesture of virtuous scorn,
+as if dancing against her will, she turned and turned, tracing great
+figure eights. It was the man who really did the dancing. This
+traditional reel, invented, doubtless, by the first settlers of the
+island, lusty pirates of the heroic age, illustrated the eternal history
+of the human race, the pursuing and hunting of the female. She whirled,
+cold and unfeeling, with the asexual hauteur of a rude virtue, fleeing
+from his springing and contortions, presenting her back to him with a
+gesture of scorn, while his fatiguing duty consisted in placing himself
+ever before her eyes, obstructing her path, coming out to meet her so
+that she should see and admire him. The dancer sprang and sprang,
+following no rule whatever, with no other restraint than the rhythm of
+the music, rebounding from the ground with tireless elasticity.
+Sometimes he would open his arms with a masterful gesture of domination,
+again he would fold them across his back, kicking his feet in the air.
+
+It was a gymnastic exercise rather than a dance, the delirium of an
+acrobat, a phrenetic movement like the war dances of African tribes. The
+woman neither perspired nor flushed; she continued her turning, coldly,
+never accelerating her pace, while her companion, dizzy from his
+velocity, panted for breath with reddened face, at last retiring
+tremulous with fatigue. Every girl could dance with several men,
+exhausting them without effort. It was the triumph of feminine
+passiveness, laughing at the arrogant ostentation of the opposite sex,
+knowing that in the end she would witness his humiliation.
+
+The appearance of the first couple drew out the others. In a moment the
+entire open space before the musicians was covered with heavy skirts,
+beneath whose rigid and multiple folds moved the small feet in white
+hempen sandals or yellow shoes. The broad bells of the pantaloons
+vibrated with the rapid movement of the springing or the energetic
+stamping which raised clouds of dust. Manly arms chose with gallant slap
+among the clustered maidens. "You!" And this monosyllable followed the
+tug of conquest, the blows which were equivalent to a momentary title of
+possession, all the extremes of a crude, ancestral predilection, of a
+gallantry inherited from remote forbears of the dark epoch when the
+club, the stone, and the hand-to-hand struggle were the first
+declaration of love.
+
+Some youths who had allowed themselves to be preceded by others more
+bold in the choice of partners, stood near the musicians watching for a
+chance to succeed to their companions. When they saw a dancer red-faced
+and perspiring, making every effort to continue, they approached him,
+grasping him by the arm and flinging him aside, and calling, "Leave her
+to me!" And they took his place with no other explanation, springing and
+pursuing the girl with the ardor of fresh energy, while she did not seem
+to notice the change, for she continued her turning with lowered eyes
+and disdainful mien.
+
+Jaime had not seen Margalida at first, as she was surrounded by her
+companions, but soon he recognized her among the dancers.
+
+Beautiful Almond Blossom! Febrer thought her more lovely than ever as he
+compared her with her friends, brown and tanned by the sun and by toil.
+Her white skin, its flower-like delicacy, with the deep and brilliant
+eyes of a gentle little animal, her graceful figure, and even the
+softness of her hands, set her apart, as if she belonged to a different
+race from her dusky companions, seductive on account of their youth,
+lively, good-natured, but who seemed to be chopped out with an axe.
+
+Looking at her, Jaime thought that in a different atmosphere she might
+have been an adorable creature. He divined in Almond Blossom countless
+delicate ways, of which she herself was unconscious. What a pity that
+she had been born in this island which she would never leave! And her
+beauty would be for some of those barbarians who admired her with a
+canine stare of eagerness! Perhaps she was destined for the Ironworker,
+that odious verro, who seemed to patronize them all with his gloomy
+eyes!
+
+When she married she would cultivate the soil like the other women; her
+flower-like whiteness would fade and turn yellow; her hands would become
+black and scaly; she would be like her mother and all the old peasant
+women, a female skeleton, bent and knaggy, like the trunk of an olive
+tree. These thoughts saddened Febrer, as a great injustice. How had the
+simple Pep, who stood beside him, produced this offspring? What obscure
+combination of race had made it possible for Margalida to be born in Can
+Mallorqui? Must this mysterious and perfumed flower of peasant stock
+fade as would the woodland buds growing beside her?
+
+Suddenly something unusual distracted Febrer's mind from these thoughts.
+The flute, the tambourine, and the castanets continued playing, the
+dancers sprang, the girls turned, but a gleam of alarm shone in the eyes
+of all, an expression of defensive solidarity. The old men ceased their
+conversation, glancing in the direction of the women. "What is it? What
+is it?" The Little Chaplain ran about among the couples, whispering into
+the ears of the dancers. These dashed from the circle, their hands in
+their belts, and after disappearing for a few seconds returned
+immediately to take their places, while the girls continued turning.
+
+Pep smiled lightly as he guessed what had happened, and he whispered to
+the senor. "It is nothing; just what happens at every dance." There had
+been danger, and the boys had put their equipment in a safe place.
+
+This "equipment" consisted of the pistols and knives which the boys
+carried as a testimony of citizenship. For an instant Febrer saw flash
+in the light stupendous and enormous weapons, marvelously concealed on
+those spare, thin bodies. The old women beckoned with their bony hands,
+eager to share the risk, the vehemence of an aggressive heroism shining
+in their eyes. "These accursed times of impiety in which decent people
+are molested when they were following ancient customs! Here! Here!" And
+grasping the deadly weapons they hid them beneath the circle made by
+their innumerable layers of petticoats and skirts. The young mothers
+settled themselves in their seats and broadened the angle of their bulky
+legs, as if to offer greater hiding space for the warlike implements.
+The women looked at each other with bellicose resolution. Let those evil
+souls dare to approach! They would suffer being torn to shreds before
+they would stir from their places.
+
+Febrer saw something glittering down a roadway leading to the church.
+They were leather straps and guns, and above these the white brims of
+the three-cocked hats of a pair of civil guards.
+
+The two defenders of the peace slowly approached, with a certain
+hesitation, convinced, no doubt, of having been seen in the distance and
+of arriving too late. Jaime was the only one who looked at them; the
+rest pretended not to see, holding their heads low or looking in a
+different direction. The musicians played more vehemently, but the
+couples began to retire. The girls deserted the young men and joined the
+group of women.
+
+"Good afternoon, gentlemen!"
+
+To this greeting from the elder of the guards the drum replied by
+ceasing to beat and leaving the flute unaccompanied. This whined a few
+notes which seemed an ironic answer to the salutation.
+
+A long silence fell. Some answered the greeting with a light "Tengui!"
+but they all pretended not to see, and glanced in another direction, as
+if the guards were not there.
+
+The painful silence seemed to annoy the two soldiers.
+
+"Vaya! Go on with your diversion. Don't stop on our account!"
+
+He gave a sign to the musicians, and they, incapable of disobeying
+authority in anything, produced a music more brisk and diabolically gay
+than before; but they might as well be playing to the dead! Everyone
+stood silent and glowering, wondering how this unexpected visit would
+end.
+
+The guards, accompanied by the beating of the drum, the musical capering
+of the flute, and the dry and strident laughter of the castanets, began
+moving about among the groups of young men, looking them over.
+
+"You young gallant," said the leader with paternal authority, "hands
+up!"
+
+The one designated obeyed tamely without the slightest intent of
+resistance, almost vain of this distinction. He knew his duty. The
+Ivizan was born to work, to live, and--to be searched. Noble
+inconveniences of being valorous, and of being held in a certain fear!
+Every youth seeing in the searching a testimony of his worth, raised his
+arms and thrust forward his abdomen, lending himself with satisfaction
+to the fumbling of the guards, while he glanced proudly toward the group
+of girls.
+
+Febrer noticed that the two officers pretended to ignore the presence
+of the Ironworker. They acted as if they did not recognize him; they
+turned their backs, making visible display of paying no attention to
+him.
+
+Pep spoke to Febrer in a low voice, with an accent of admiration. Those
+men with the tricorne hats knew more than the devil himself; by not
+searching the verro they almost offered him an insult; they showed that
+they had no fear of him; they set him apart from the rest, exempting him
+from an operation to which everyone else was compelled to submit.
+Whenever they met the verro in the company of other young men, they
+searched those, without ever touching him. For this reason the boys,
+through fear of losing their weapons, finally avoided going out with the
+hero, and they shunned him as an attractor of danger.
+
+The searching continued to the sound of music. The Little Chaplain
+followed the guards on their evolutions, always placing himself before
+the elder one, with his hands in his belt, looking at him fixedly, with
+an expression half threatening, half entreating. The man did not seem to
+see him; he looked for the others, but he continually stumbled against
+the youngster, who barred his way. The man with the three-cocked hat
+finally smiled under his fierce mustache, and called his comrade.
+
+"You!" he said, pointing to the boy. "Search that verro. He must be
+dangerous."
+
+The Little Chaplain, forgiving the enemy's waggish tone, raised his arms
+as high as possible so that no one should fail to see his importance.
+The guard had moved away after giving him a tickling in the stomach, but
+the boy still maintained his position as a man to be feared. Then he
+rushed toward a group of girls to boast of the danger he had faced.
+Fortunately his grandfather's knife was at home, safely hidden away by
+his father. Had he borne it on his person they would have taken it from
+him.
+
+The guards soon wearied of this fruitless search. The elder glanced
+maliciously toward the group of women, like a dog sniffing a trail. He
+knew well enough where the weapons were concealed, but let anyone
+venture to make the bronze matrons stir from their places! Hostility
+shone in the eyes of the ancient dames. They would have to be torn away
+by main force, and they were senoras!
+
+"Gentlemen, good afternoon!"
+
+They slung their guns over their shoulders, refusing the proffer of some
+youths who had run to a tavern to bring glasses. They were offered
+without fear or rancor; were they not all neighbors, living together on
+their little island? The guards, however, were firm in their refusal.
+"Thanks; it is against the rules." They strode away, perhaps to lie in
+ambush a short distance away and repeat the searching again at sunset
+when the party was broken up and the people returning to their lonely
+farmhouses.
+
+After the danger had passed the instruments ceased playing. Febrer saw
+the Minstrel take the little drum and seat himself in the open space
+recently occupied by the dancers. The people crowded around him. The
+venerable matrons drew up their esparto-seated chairs in order to hear
+better. He was about to sing a romance of his own composition; a
+relacion, accentuated, according to the custom of the country, by a
+quavering plaint, a cry of pain drawn out as long as the singer had air
+left in his lungs.
+
+He beat the drum slowly to impart a gloomy solemnity to his monotonous
+song, dreamy and sad. "How can I sing for you, friends, when my heart is
+broken?" began the recitative; and then, in the midst of a general
+silence, came a strident trill, like the long continued lament of a
+dying bird.
+
+The entire company gazed at the singer, not seeing in him the indolent,
+sickly youth, despicable on account of his uselessness for work. In
+their primitive minds stirred a vague something which impelled them to
+respect the words and complaints of the weakling. It was something
+extraordinary, which seemed to sweep, with rude beating of wings, over
+their simple souls.
+
+The Minstrel's voice sobbed as it told of a woman insensible to his
+sighs, and as he compared her whiteness with the flower of the almond,
+they turned their eyes to Margalida, who remained impassive, with no
+sign of virginal flushing, being accustomed to this tribute of crude
+poesy which was a sort of prelude to gallantry.
+
+The Minstrel continued his laments, reddening with the strain of the
+painful crowing which ended every strophe. His narrow chest heaved with
+the effort; two rosettes of sickly purple colored his cheeks; his
+slender neck dilated, the veins standing out in blue relief. In
+accordance with custom, he concealed part of his face under an
+embroidered kerchief, which he held with his arm resting on the drum.
+Febrer felt anxiety listening to this painful voice. It seemed to him
+that the singer's lungs would give way, that his throat would burst; but
+his hearers, accustomed to this barbaric singing, which was as
+exhausting as the dance, paid no attention to his fatigue, nor did they
+weary of his interminable narration.
+
+A group of youths, moving away from the circle around the poet, seemed
+to be holding a consultation, and then they approached the older men.
+They were in search of Senor Pep, of Can Mallorqui, to discuss an
+important matter. They turned their backs scornfully upon the Minstrel,
+an unhappy creature, good for nothing but to dedicate verses to the
+girls.
+
+The most venturesome of the group faced Pep. They wished to speak of the
+"festeig" of Margalida; they reminded the father of his promise to
+sanction the courting of the girl.
+
+The peasant-farmer looked at the group deliberately, as if counting
+their number.
+
+"How many are you?"
+
+The leader smiled. There were many more. They represented other young
+men who had remained to hear the song. There were youths from every
+district. Even from San Juan, at the opposite end of the island, youths
+were coming to court Margalida.
+
+Despite the mock gesture of an intractable father, Pep reddened and
+compressed his lips with ill-concealed satisfaction, glancing out of the
+corner of his eye at the friends sitting near him. What glory for Can
+Mallorqui! Such a courtship had never been known before. Never had his
+companions seen their daughters so honored.
+
+"Are there twenty of you?" he asked.
+
+The youths did not reply immediately, being occupied in mental
+calculation, murmuring the names of friends. Twenty? More, many more! He
+might count on thirty.
+
+The peasant persisted in his pretended indignation. Thirty! Maybe they
+thought he needed no rest, and that he was going to spend a whole night
+without sleep, witnessing their courting.
+
+Then he grew calm, giving himself up to complicated mental calculations,
+while he repeated thoughtfully, with an expression of amazement,
+"Thirty! Thirty!"
+
+In the end he gave his sanction. He would not give more than an hour
+and a half in one evening to the wooing. Since there were thirty, that
+made three minutes each; three minutes, counted, watch in hand, to talk
+to Margalida; not a minute more! Thursday and Saturday would be courting
+nights. When he had gone courting his wife the suitors were many less,
+and yet his father-in-law, a man who had never been seen to smile, did
+not concede more time than this. There must be much formality,
+understand! Let there be no rivalry nor fighting! The first one to break
+the agreement Pep was man enough to beat out of the door with a club;
+and if it became necessary to use the gun, he would use it.
+
+Good-natured Pep, gratified at being able to assume unbounded ferocity
+at the expense of the respect due from his daughter's suitors, heaped
+bravado upon bravado, talking of killing anyone who should not keep to
+the agreement, while the youths listened with humble mien, but with an
+ironic grin under their noses.
+
+The bargain was closed. Thursday next the first audience would be held
+at Can Mallorqui. Febrer, who had heard the conversation, glanced at the
+verro, who held himself aloof, as if his greatness prevented his
+condescending to wretched haggling over the arrangement.
+
+When the boys moved away to join the circle, discussing in a low voice
+the order of precedence, the troubadour ceased his doleful music,
+crowing his last crow with a dolorous voice that seemed finally to rend
+his poor throat. He wiped away the perspiration, pressed his hands
+against his breast, his face becoming a dark purple, but the people had
+turned their backs and he was already forgotten.
+
+The girls, with the solidarity of sex, surrounded Margalida with
+vehement gesticulations, pushing her, and urging her to sing a reply to
+what the troubadour had said about the perfidy of women.
+
+"No! No!" replied Almond Blossom, struggling to rid herself of her
+companions.
+
+So sincere was she in her resistance that at last the old women
+intervened, defending her. Let her alone! Margalida had come to enjoy
+herself, and not to entertain the others. Did they think it such an easy
+matter to suddenly compose a reply in verse?
+
+The drummer had recovered the instrument from the Minstrel's hands and
+began to beat it. The flute seemed to be gargling the rapid notes before
+beginning the dreamy melody of an African rhythm. On with the dance!
+
+The boys all began shouting at once with aggressive vehemence,
+addressing the musicians. Some demanded the "long" and others the
+"short"; they all felt themselves strong and imperious again. The deadly
+steel had come forth from beneath the women's petticoats and had
+returned to their belts, and contact with these companions imparted to
+each a new life, a recrudescence of their arrogance.
+
+The musicians began to play what they pleased, the curious crowd made
+way, and again in the center of the plaza the white hempen sandals began
+to spring, the whorls of green and blue skirts began to turn stiffly,
+while the points of kerchiefs fluttered above heavy braids, or the
+flowers worn by the girls behind their ears shook like red tassels.
+
+Jaime continued looking at the Ironworker with the irresistible
+attraction of antipathy. The verro stood silent and as if abstracted
+among his admirers, who formed a circle around him. He seemed not to see
+the others, fixing his eyes on Margalida with a tense expression, as if
+he would conquer her with this stare which inspired fear in men. When
+the Little Chaplain, with the enthusiasm of youth, approached the verro,
+he deigned to smile, seeing in the boy a future relative.
+
+Even the boys who had ventured to discuss the wooing with Senor Pep
+seemed intimidated by the Ironworker's presence. The girls came out to
+dance, led by the young men, but Margalida remained beside her mother,
+gazed at enviously by all, yet none of them dared approach to invite
+her.
+
+The Majorcan felt the Camorrist tendencies of his early youth aroused in
+him. He loathed the verro; he felt the terror inspired by the man as a
+personal offense. Was there no one to give a slap in the face to this
+coxcomb from the prison?
+
+A youth approached Margalida, taking her by the hand. It was the
+Minstrel, still perspiring and tremulous after his exertion. He held
+himself erect, trying to give the lie to his weakness. The white Almond
+Blossom began to turn on her small feet and he sprang and sprang,
+pursuing her in her evolutions.
+
+Poor boy! Jaime felt an impression of anguish, guessing the effort of
+the pitiful attempt to dominate the fatigue of the body. He breathed
+laboriously, his legs began to tremble, but in spite of this he smiled,
+gratified at his triumph. He gazed tenderly at Margalida, and if he
+turned away his eyes it was to look haughtily at his friends who
+responded with looks of pity.
+
+In making a turn he almost fell; as he gave a great leap his knees bent.
+Everyone expected to see him fall to the ground; but he went on dancing,
+displaying his will-power, his determination to die rather than confess
+his weakness.
+
+His eyes were closing with vertigo when he felt a touch on his
+shoulder, according to usage, requiring him to yield his partner.
+
+It was the Ironworker, who flung himself into the dance for the first
+time that afternoon. His leaping was received with a murmur of applause.
+They all admired him, with that collective cowardice of a timid
+multitude.
+
+The verro, seeing himself applauded, increased his contortions, pursuing
+his partner, barring her way, surrounding her in the complicated net of
+his movements, while Margalida turned and turned with lowered gaze,
+avoiding the eyes of the dreaded gallant.
+
+At times, the verro, to display his vigor, with his bust thrown back and
+his arms behind him, sprang to a considerable height, as if the ground
+were elastic and his legs steel springs. This leaping made Jaime think,
+with a sensation of repugnance, of escapes from prison or of
+surreptitious assaults with a knife.
+
+Time passed, but the man did not seem to tire. Some of the girls had sat
+down, in other cases the dancer had been substituted several times, but
+the verro continued his violent dance, ever gloomy and disdainful, as if
+insensible to weariness.
+
+Jaime himself recognized with a dash of envy the terrible vigor of the
+Ironworker. What an animal!
+
+Suddenly the dancer was seen to feel for something in his belt, and
+reach downward with one hand, without ceasing his evolutions or his
+leaping. A cloud of smoke spread over the ground, and between its white
+film two rapid flashes were outlined pale and rosy in the sunlight,
+followed by two reports.
+
+The women huddled together, screaming with sudden fright; the men stood
+undecided, but soon all were reassured, and burst into shouts of
+approbation and applause.
+
+"Muy bien!" The verro had fired off his pistol at his partner's feet;
+the supreme gallantry of a valiant man; the greatest homage a girl on
+the island could receive.
+
+Margalida, a woman at heart, continued dancing, without having been
+greatly impressed, like a good Ivizan, by the explosion of the powder;
+giving the Ironworker a look of gratitude for the bravado which made him
+defy persecution from the civil guards who might still be near; then
+turning to her friends who were tremulous with envy at this homage.
+
+Even Pep himself, to the great indignation of Jaime, displayed pride
+over the two shots fired at his daughter's feet.
+
+Febrer was the only one who did not seem enthusiastic over this gallant
+deed.
+
+Accursed convict! Febrer was not sure of the motive of his fury, but it
+was something spontaneous. He meant to settle accounts with that
+peasant!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+THIRTY AND ONE WOOERS
+
+
+Winter came. There were days when the sea would lash furiously against
+the chain of islands and cliffs between Iviza and Formentera that form a
+wall of rock cut by straits and channels. The deep blue waters, which
+usually flow tranquilly through these narrows, reflecting the sandy
+bottoms, would begin to whirl in livid eddies, dashing against the
+coasts and the projecting rocks, which would disappear and then emerge
+again in the white foam. Vessels would struggle valiantly against the
+swift undertow and the spectacular, roaring waters between the islands
+of Espalmador and Los Ahorcados, where lies the pathway of the great
+ships. Vessels from Iviza and Formentera must spread all their canvas,
+and sail under shelter of the barren islands. The sinuosities of this
+labyrinth of channels permit navigators from the archipelago of the
+Pityusae to go from one island to another by different routes, according
+to the direction of the winds. While the sea rages on one side of the
+archipelago, on the other it may be still and safe, lying heavy like
+oil. In the straits the waves may swirl high in furious whirlpools, but
+with a mere turn of the wheel, a slight shifting of her course, the
+vessel may glide into the shelter of an island where she will ride in
+tranquil waters, paradisiacal, limpid, affording views of strange
+vegetation, where dart fishes sparkling with silver and flashing with
+carmine.
+
+Usually day dawned with a gray sky and an ashen sea. The Vedra seemed
+more enormous, more imposing, lifting its conical needle in this stormy
+atmosphere. The sea rushed in cataracts through the caverns on its
+margin, roaring like the peals of gigantic cannons. The wild goats on
+their inaccessible heights sprang from one narrow footing to another,
+and only when thunder rolled through the gloomy heavens, and fiery
+serpents flashed down to drink in the immense pool of the sea, did the
+timid beasts flee with bleating of terror to seek refuge in the recesses
+covered by juniper.
+
+On many stormy days Febrer went fishing with Tio Ventolera. The old
+sailor was thoroughly familiar with his sea. On the mornings when Jaime
+remained in his couch watching the livid and diffuse light of a stormy
+day filter through the crevices, he had to arise hastily on hearing the
+voice of his companion who "sang the mass," accompanying the Latin
+jargon by pelting the tower with stones. Get up! It was a fine day for
+fishing. They would make a good catch. When Febrer gazed apprehensively
+at the threatening sea, the old man explained that they would find
+tranquil waters in the shelter around the Vedra.
+
+Again, on radiant mornings, Febrer fruitlessly awaited the old man's
+call. Time dragged on. After the rosy tint of dawn the golden bars of
+sunlight stole through the cracks; but in vain the hours passed, he
+heard neither mass nor stone throwing. Tio Ventolera remained invisible.
+Then, on opening his window, he looked out upon the clear sky, luminous
+with the gracious splendor of the winter sun, but the sea was restless,
+a gloomy blue, undulating, without foam and without noise under the
+impulse of a treacherous wind.
+
+The winter rains covered the island as with a gray mantle, through which
+the indefinite contours of the nearby range were vaguely outlined. On
+the mountain tops the pine trees dropped tears from every filament, and
+the thick layer of humus was soaked like a sponge, expelling liquid
+beneath the footsteps. On the barren rocky heights along the coast, the
+rain gathered, forming tumultuous brooks, which leapt from cliff to
+cliff. The spreading fig trees trembled like enormous broken umbrellas,
+allowing the water to enter the broad spaces beneath their cupolas. The
+almond trees, denuded of their leaves, shook like black skeletons. The
+deep gulleys filled with bellowing waters that flowed uselessly toward
+the sea. The roads, paved with blue cobbles, between high, rocky banks,
+were converted into cataracts. The island, thirsty and dusty during a
+great part of the year, seemed to repel this exuberance of rain from all
+its pores, as a sick man repels the strong medicine administered too
+late. On these stormy days Febrer remained shut up in his tower. It was
+impossible to go to sea and impossible also to go out hunting in the
+island fields. The farmhouses were closed, their white cubes spotted by
+torrents of rain, devoid of any other sign of life than the thread of
+blue smoke escaping from the chimney tops.
+
+Forced to inactivity, the lord of the Pirate's Tower began to read over
+again one of the few books he had acquired on his trips to the city, or
+he smoked pensively, recalling that past from which he had endeavored to
+run away. What was happening in Majorca? What were his friends saying?
+
+Given over to this enforced idleness, lacking the distraction of
+physical exercise, he thought over his former life, which was daily
+growing more hazy and indistinct in his memory. It seemed to him like
+the life of another man; something which he had seen and been familiar
+with, but which belonged to the history of another. Really was that
+Jaime Febrer who had traveled all over Europe and had had his hours of
+vanity and triumph the same person who was now living in this tower by
+the sea, rustic, bearded, and almost savage, with the sandals and hat of
+a peasant, more accustomed to the moaning of the waves and the screaming
+of gulls than to contact with men?
+
+Weeks before he had received a second letter from his friend Toni
+Clapes. This also was written from a cafe on the Borne, a few hastily
+scrawled lines to attest his regard. This rude but kind friend did not
+forget him; he did not even seem to be offended because his former
+letter had remained unanswered. He wrote about Captain Pablo. The
+captain was still angry with Febrer, nevertheless he was working
+diligently to disentangle his affairs. The smuggler had faith in Valls.
+He was the cleverest of Chuetas, and more generous than any of them.
+There was no doubt that he would save the remains of Jaime's fortune,
+and he would be able to spend the rest of his days in Majorca, tranquil
+and happy. Later he would hear from the captain himself. Valls preferred
+to keep quiet until matters were settled.
+
+Febrer shrugged his shoulders. Bah! It was all over! But on gloomy
+winter days his spirit rebelled against existing like a solitary
+mollusk, shut up in his stone shell. Was he always going to live like
+this? Was it not folly to have hidden himself away in this corner while
+still having youth and courage to struggle with the world?
+
+Yes, it was folly. The island and his romantic shelter were all very
+pretty for the first few months, when the sun shone, the trees were
+green, and the island customs exercised over his soul the charm of a
+bizarre novelty; but bad weather had come, the solitude was intolerable,
+and the life of the rustics was revealed to him in all the crudity of
+their barbarous passions. These peasants, dressed in blue velveteen,
+with their bright belts and gay cravats and their flowers behind their
+ears, had at first seemed to him picturesque figures, created only to
+serve as a decoration for the fields, choristers for a pastoral
+operetta, languid and tame; but he knew them better now; they were men
+like others, and barbarous men, barely grazed by contact with
+civilization, conserving all the sharp angles of their ancestral
+rudeness. Seen from a distance, for a short time, they attracted with
+the charm of novelty, but he had penetrated their customs, he was almost
+one of them, and it weighed upon him like falling into slavery--this
+inferior existence which seemed to be clashing every instant with ideas
+and prejudices of his past.
+
+He ought to get away from this atmosphere; but where could he go? How
+could he escape? He was poor. His entire capital consisted of a few
+dozens of duros which he had brought from Majorca, a sum which he
+retained, thanks to Pep, who was firm in his refusal to accept any
+remuneration whatever. Here he must remain, nailed to his tower as if it
+were a cross, without hope, without desire, seeking in cessation of
+thought a vegetative joy like that of the junipers and tamarisks growing
+between the cliffs on the promontory, or like that of the shell fish
+forever clinging to the submerged rocks.
+
+After long reflection he resigned himself to his fate. He would not
+think, he would not desire. Besides, hope, which, never forsakes us,
+conceived in his mind the vague possibility of something extraordinary
+that would present itself in its own good time, to save him from this
+situation; but while it was on its way, how the loneliness bored him!
+
+Margalida had not been to the tower for some time. She seemed to seek
+pretexts for not coming, and she even went out of her way to avoid
+meeting Febrer. She had changed; she seemed to have suddenly awakened to
+a new existence. The innocent and trustful smile of girlhood had changed
+to a gesture of reserve, like a woman who realizes the dangers of the
+road and travels with slow and cautious step.
+
+Since the courting had begun, and young men came twice a week to solicit
+her hand, according to the traditional "festeig," she seemed to have
+taken heed of great and unknown dangers before unsuspected, and she
+remained at her mother's side, shunning every occasion of being left
+alone with a man, and blushing as soon as masculine eyes met her own.
+
+This courting had nothing extraordinary about it, according to island
+customs, and yet it aroused in Febrer a dumb anger, as if he saw in it
+an offense and a spoliation. The invasion of Can Mallorqui by the
+braggart and enamored young blades he took as an insult. He had looked
+upon the farmhouse as his home, but since these intruders had been
+cordially received he was going to take his leave.
+
+Besides, he suffered in silence the chagrin of not being the only
+preoccupation of the family, as he had been at first. Pep and his wife
+still looked up to him as their master; Margalida and her brother
+venerated him as a powerful lord who had come from far away because
+Iviza was the best place in the world; but in spite of this other
+thoughts seemed to be reflected in their eyes. The visit of so many
+youths and the change which this had wrought in their daily life, made
+them less solicitous in regard to Don Jaime. They were all worried about
+the future. Which one of the youths deserved in the end to be
+Margalida's husband?
+
+During the long winter evenings Febrer, shut up in his tower, sat gazing
+at a little light shining forth in the valley below--the light of Can
+Mallorqui. On the nights not devoted to the courting, the family would
+be alone, gathered around the fireplace, but, in spite of this, he
+remained fixed in his isolation. No, he would not go down. In his
+chagrin he even complained of the bad weather, as if he would make the
+winter cold responsible for this change which had gradually taken place
+in his relations with the peasant family.
+
+He wistfully recalled those beautiful summer nights when they used to
+sit until the small hours watching the stars tremble in the dark sky
+beyond the black border of the portico. Febrer used to sit beneath the
+pergola with the family and Uncle Ventolera who came, drawn by the hope
+of some gift. They never let him go away without a slice of watermelon,
+which filled the old man's mouth with its sweet red juice, or a glass of
+perfumed figola, brewed from fragrant mountain herbs. Margalida, her
+eyes fixed on the mystery of the stars, would sing Ivizan romances in
+her girlish voice, more fresh and soft to the ear of Febrer than the
+breeze which filled the blue tumult of the night with rustling. Pep
+would tell, with the air of a prodigious explorer, of his stupendous
+adventures on the mainland during the years when he had served the king
+as a soldier, in the remote and almost fantastic lands of Catalonia and
+Valencia.
+
+The dog, lying at his feet, seemed to be listening to his master with
+mild, gentle eyes, in the depths of which a star was reflected. Suddenly
+he would spring up with nervous impulse, and giving a leap, would
+disappear in the darkness, accompanied by the sonorous murmur of
+crashing vegetation. Pep would explain this stealthy flight. It was
+nothing more than some animal wandering in the darkness; a jack rabbit,
+a cotton-tail, which the beast had scented with the delicate nose of the
+hunting dog. Again he would rise to his feet slowly with growls of
+vigilant hostility. Somebody was passing near the farmhouse; a shadow, a
+man walking quickly, with the celerity of the Ivizans, accustomed to
+going rapidly from one side of the island to the other. If the shade
+spoke, they all answered his greeting. If he passed in silence they
+pretended not to see him, just as the dark traveler seemed to be
+unconscious of the existence of the farmhouse and of the persons seated
+under the pergola.
+
+It was a very ancient custom in Iviza not to greet each other out in the
+country after nightfall. Shadows passed along the roads without a word,
+avoiding a meeting so as not to stumble against nor recognize each
+other. Each was bound on business of his own, to see his sweetheart, to
+consult the doctor, to kill an enemy at the other end of the island, to
+return on a run and be able to prove an alibi by saying that at the
+fatal hour he had been with friends. Every one who traveled at night had
+his reasons for passing unrecognized. One shadow feared another shadow.
+A "bona nit," or a request for a light for the cigarette, might be
+answered by a pistol shot.
+
+Sometimes no one passed by the farmhouse, and yet, the dog, stretching
+out his neck, howled into the dark void. In the distance human howls
+seemed to answer him. They were prolonged and savage yells, which rent
+the mysterious silence like a war cry. "A-u-u-u!" And much farther away,
+weakened by distance, replied another fierce exclamation: "A-u-u-u!"
+
+The peasant silenced his dog. There was nothing strange about these
+cries. They were the voices of youths howling in the darkness, guiding
+one another by their calls, perhaps that they might recognize each other
+and come together for a friendly purpose, or perhaps to fight, the cry
+being a challenging shout. It was not unlikely that after the howling a
+shot would ring out. Affairs of young bloods and of the night! They had
+no significance.
+
+Then Pep would continue the relation of his extraordinary journeys,
+while his wife, who heard these ever new marvels for the thousandth
+time, stared at him in amazement.
+
+Uncle Ventolera, not to be outdone, narrated tales of pirates and of
+valorous mariners of Iviza, bearing them out with the testimony of his
+father, who had been cabin boy on Captain Riquer's xebec, and which
+assaulted the frigate _Felicidad_, captained by the formidable corsair
+"the Pope." Stirred by these heroic recollections, he hummed in his
+quavering old voice the ballad in which Ivizan sailors had celebrated
+the triumph, verses in Castilian, for greater solemnity, whose words Tio
+Ventolera mispronounced.
+
+The toothless old sailor continued singing the heroic deeds of long ago,
+as if they dated from yesterday, as if he had witnessed them himself, as
+if a flash from the atalaya announcing a disembarcation of enemies might
+suddenly flare across this land of combat, enveloped in darkness.
+
+Again, his eyes glittering with avarice, he would tell of enormous sums
+which the Moors, the Romans, and other red mariners whom he called the
+Normans, had buried in caves along the coast. His ancestors knew much
+about all this. What a pity that they had died without saying a word! He
+related the true history of the cavern of Formentera, where the Normans
+had stored the product of their freebooting expeditions throughout Spain
+and Italy--golden images of saints, chalices, chains, jewels, precious
+stones and coins measured by the peck. A frightful dragon, trained
+doubtless by the red men, used to guard the deep, dark cavern, with the
+treasure beneath his belly. The rash soul who should slip down a rope
+into the cave would serve the beast for nourishment. The red mariners
+had died many centuries ago; the dragon was dead also; the treasure must
+still be on Formentera. Who could find it? The rustic audience trembled
+with emotion, never doubting the existence of such treasure because of
+the respect inspired in them by the age of the narrator.
+
+Placid summer evenings those, which were no longer repeated for Febrer!
+He avoided going down to Can Mallorqui after dark, fearful of disturbing
+by his presence the conversation of the family about Margalida's
+suitors.
+
+On courting nights he experienced even greater uneasiness, and, without
+explaining to himself his motive, he stared longingly toward the
+farmhouse. The same light, the same appearance as ever--but he imagined
+that he could make out in the nocturnal silence, new sounds, the echo of
+songs, Margalida's voice. There would be the odious Ironworker, and that
+poor devil of a Minstrel, and the rude, barbarous youths, with their
+ridiculous dress. Gran Dios! How was it possible that these rustics had
+ever managed to interest him, after all that he had seen of the world?
+
+The next day when the Little Chaplain would climb up to the tower to
+bring his dinner, Jaime would question him about the events of the
+previous evening.
+
+Listening to the boy, Febrer pictured to himself the incidents of the
+courting. The family supped hurriedly at nightfall, so as to be ready
+for the ceremony. Margalida took down her gala skirt hanging from the
+ceiling in her room, and after donning it with the red and green
+kerchief crossed over her breast and a smaller one on her head, a long
+bow of ribbon at the end of her braid, she put on the gold chain her
+mother had turned over to her, and took her seat on the folded abragais
+on a kitchen chair. Her father smoked his pipe of tobacco de pota; her
+mother sat in a corner weaving rush baskets; the Little Chaplain peeped
+out of the door to the broad porch, on which the youthful suitors were
+silently gathering. Some there were who had been waiting for an hour,
+for they lived near; there were others who came dusty or spattered with
+mud, after walking two leagues. On rainy nights, in the shelter of the
+porch they shook out their cowled Arabian capes of coarse weave, an
+inheritance from their forefathers, or the feminine mantles in which
+they were wrapped, as garments of modern elegance.
+
+After briefly deciding upon the order to be followed in their
+conversation with the girl, the troop of rivals started for the kitchen,
+as it was too cold on the porch in winter. A knock on the door.
+
+"Come in, whoever you are!" shouted Pep, as if ignorant of the presence
+of the suitors and expecting an unusual visitor.
+
+They entered tamely, greeting the family: "Bona nit! Bona nit!" They
+took seats on a bench, like schoolboys, or they remained standing, all
+gazing at the girl. Near her was a vacant chair, or if this were
+lacking, the suitor squatted on the ground, Moorish fashion, talking to
+her in low tones for three minutes, enduring the hostile gaze of his
+adversaries. The slightest prolongation of this brief term provoked
+coughing, furious glances, remonstrances and threats in undertones. The
+youth would retire and another would take his place. The Little Chaplain
+laughed at these scenes, seeing in the hostile tenacity of the suitors a
+motive for pride. The courting of his sister was not going to be like
+that of other girls. The suitors seemed to Pepet to be rabid dogs who
+would not easily give up their prey. This wooing smelled to him of
+gunpowder, and he affirmed it with a smile of joy and satisfaction which
+disclosed the whiteness of his wolf-cub teeth in his dark oval face.
+None of the suitors seemed to gain advantage over the others. During the
+two months that the courting had lasted, Margalida had done nothing but
+listen, smile, and respond to them all with words which confused the
+youths. His sister's talent was very great. On Sundays when they went to
+mass, she walked ahead of her parents accompanied by all her suitors--a
+veritable army. Don Jaime had met them several times. Her friends,
+seeing her come with this queenly retinue, paled with envy. The suitors
+besieged her, endeavoring to extract some word, some sign of preference,
+but she replied with astonishing discretion, keeping them all on the
+same footing, avoiding fatal clashes which might suddenly arouse the
+aggressive youths, who were always heavily armed.
+
+"And how about the Ironworker?" asked Don Jaime.
+
+Accursed verro! His name issued with difficulty from the senor's lips,
+but he had been thinking of him for some time.
+
+The boy shook his head. The Ironworker was making no particular advance
+over his rivals, and the Little Chaplain did not seem to regret it
+keenly.
+
+His admiration for the verro had cooled somewhat. Love emboldens men,
+and none of the youths who pretended to Margalida's hand, now that they
+came face to face with him as a rival, stood in fear of him any longer,
+and they even ventured disrespect to his formidable person. One evening
+he had appeared with a guitar, intending to employ a large part of the
+time which belonged to the others in playing. When his turn came he
+placed himself near Margalida, tuned his instrument and began to intone
+songs of the mainland learned during his retirement at "Niza"; but
+before beginning he had taken from his girdle a double-barreled pistol,
+cocked it, and had laid it upon one of his thighs, ready to grasp it and
+to let fly a shot at the first man to interrupt him. Absolute silence
+and impassive glances! He sang as long as he wished, he put up his
+pistol with the air of a conqueror, but later, when they went out, in
+the darkness of the fields, when the youths dispersed with cries of
+ironic farewell, two well-aimed stones issuing from the shadows struck
+the braggart to the ground, and for several days he failed to come to
+the courting so as not to show his bandaged head. He had made no effort
+to find out who the aggressor was. The rivals were many, and, moreover,
+he had to take into account their fathers, uncles, and brothers, almost
+a fourth part of the island, quick to mix in a war of vengeance for the
+honor of the family.
+
+"I think," said Pepet, "that the Ironworker is less valiant than they
+say; and what is your opinion about it, Don Jaime?"
+
+When it was growing late, and Margalida had talked with each of her
+suitors, her father, who was dozing in a corner, would break into a
+loud yawn. The man of the fields seemed to divine the passing of time
+even when asleep. "Half past nine! Bedtime! Bona nit!" And all the
+youths, after this hint, would leave the house, their footsteps and
+their whinnying swallowed up by darkness.
+
+Pepet, as he spoke of these reunions, in which he rubbed elbows with
+brave men, wearers of deadly weapons, again bethought him of his
+grandfather's knife. When would Don Jaime speak to his father about this
+family treasure? Since he had put off asking he must not forget his
+promise to present him another knife. What could a man like himself do,
+lacking such a companion? Where could he present himself?
+
+"Don't worry," said Febrer. "One of these days I'll go to town. You may
+count on the gift."
+
+One morning Jaime started for Iviza, eager for a fresh experience, and
+to renew and vary his impressions in a less rural atmosphere. Iviza
+seemed to him now like a great city, even to him who had traveled over
+all Europe. The houses in a row, the red brick sidewalks, the balconies
+with Persian blinds, he admired them all with the simplicity of a savage
+from the interior of a desert who arrives at a trading station on the
+coast. He paused before the shops, examining the goods exposed with the
+same enjoyment with which he used to contemplate the luxurious display
+windows on the boulevards or on Regent Street.
+
+The jewelry shop of a Chueta held his attention a long while. He admired
+the filigree buttons with a stone in the center, the hollow gold chains
+made for the peasant girls, who deemed these objects the most perfect
+and marvelous works created by the art of man. Suppose he should go in
+and buy a dozen of those buttons! What a surprise for the girl of Can
+Mallorqui when he should present them to her for the decoration of her
+sleeves! Surely she would accept them from him, a grave gentleman upon
+whom she looked with filial respect. Detestable respect! That confounded
+gravity of his that hampered him like a crushing burden! But the scion
+of the Febrers, the descendant of opulent merchants and heroic
+navigators, was forced to resist, thinking of the money stowed away in
+his girdle. Probably he did not possess enough to make the purchase.
+
+In another store he acquired a knife for Pepet, the largest and heaviest
+he could find, an absurd weapon, capable of making him forget the relic
+of his glorious grandfather.
+
+At noon, Febrer, bored by objectless strolling through the ward of the
+Marina, and along the steep, narrow streets of the ancient Royal
+Fortress, entered a small inn, the only one in the city, situated near
+the port. There he met the customary patrons. In the vestibule a few
+youths dressed in peasant style, with military caps, soldiers of the
+garrison who served as orderlies; within the dining-room, subaltern
+officers of a batallion of light infantry, young lieutenants who were
+smoking with a bored mien and gazing through the windows at the immense
+blue expanse like prisoners of the sea. During the meal they lamented
+their bad luck at having their youth wasted by being chained to this
+rock. They spoke of Majorca as a place of joy; they recalled the
+provinces on the mainland, of which many of them were sons, as paradises
+to which they were eager to return. Women! It was a longing, a desire
+which made their voices quaver and brought a glow of madness into their
+eyes. The chaste Ivizan virtue, the exclusive islander, suspicious of
+foreigners, weighed upon them like the chain of an insufferable prison.
+There was no trifling with love here; no time was wasted; either hostile
+indifference or honest courting with a view to speedy marriage. Words
+and smiles led straight to matrimony; association with young girls was
+only possible for the purpose of the formation of a new household; and
+these lusty youths, gay, abounding in vitality, suffered a tantalizing
+torment discussing the most beautiful girls of the island, admiring
+them, yet living apart from them, in spite of moving in narrow limits
+which forced them to continual meetings. Their dearest hope was to get
+leave of absence, so that they might live a few days in Majorca or on
+the Peninsula, far from the cold-hearted and virtuous isle, which
+accepted the foreigner only as a husband.
+
+Women! Those young bloods talked of nothing else, and seated at the long
+table, Febrer silently seconded their words and lamentations. Women! The
+irresistible tendency which binds us to them is the only thing that
+remains after the moral upheavals which change one's life; the only
+thing which remains standing among the ghosts of other illusions
+destroyed by the cataclysm. Febrer felt the same disgust as did the
+soldiers, the impression of being locked up in a prison of privations,
+surrounded by the sea as if it were a moat. Just now the island capital
+impressed him as a town of irresistible monotony, with its senoritas
+guarded in suspicious and monastic isolation. His mind reverted to the
+country as to a place of liberty, with its simple souled and natural
+women, restrained only by a defensive instinct like that of primitive
+females.
+
+He left the city that same afternoon. Nothing remained of the optimism
+of a few hours before. The streets of the Marina were nauseating; an
+infectious odor escaped from the houses; in the arroyo buzzed swarms of
+insects, rising from the pools at the sound of the footsteps of a
+passerby. The recollection of the hills near his tower, perfumed by
+sylvan plants and by the salty odor of the sea, seemed to smile in his
+memory with idyllic sweetness.
+
+A peasant's cart took him to the vicinity of San Jose, and after leaving
+it he started for the mountain, passing between the pine trees bent and
+twisted by the storms. The sky was overcast, the atmosphere warm and
+heavy. From time to time big drops fell, but before the clouds could
+settle into rain a gust of wind seemed to sweep them toward the horizon.
+
+Near a charcoal burner's cabin Jaime saw two women walking rapidly among
+the pines. They were Margalida and her mother, coming from Cubells, a
+hermitage situated upon a hill on the coast, near a spring, which gave a
+vivid green to the abrupt cliffs, and nurtured oranges and palms in the
+shelter of the rocks.
+
+Jaime overtook the two women, and next he saw Pepet spring out of the
+bushes where he had been walking outside the path, stone in hand,
+pursuing a bird whose cries had attracted his attention. They continued
+the journey to Can Mallorqui together, and, without realizing how it
+happened Febrer found himself in advance, walking by Margalida's side,
+while Pep's wife trudged along behind with slow step, leaning on her
+son's arm.
+
+The mother was ill; an obscure illness, which caused the doctor on his
+rare visits, to shrug his shoulders, and which excited the ambition of
+the island healers. They had been to make a promise to the Virgin of
+Cubells, and had left on her altar two fluted candles purchased in the
+city.
+
+While Margalida talked in a sad voice of the old woman's aches and
+pains, the egoism of vigorous youth spurred her on with nervous haste
+until her cheeks became suffused with color, and her eyes betrayed a
+certain impatience. This was courting day. They must reach Can Mallorqui
+in time to prepare an early supper for the family before the suitors
+should arrive.
+
+Febrer was admiring her with his serious eyes. He marveled now at the
+stupidity which had caused him to think of Margalida for all these
+months as a child, as an undeveloped creature, without realizing her
+graces. He remembered with scorn those senoritas of the city for whom
+the soldiers in the fonda sighed. Again he thought of the courting of
+Margalida with an annoyance resembling jealousy. Must this girl fall a
+prey to one of those dusky-faced barbarians who would subject her to
+slavery of the soil like a beast?
+
+"Margalida!" he murmured, as if about to say something important.
+"Margalida!"
+
+But he spoke no more. The old-time rake felt his instincts of
+libertinism aroused by the perfume exhaled by this woman, an indefinable
+perfume of flesh fresh and virginal, which he thought he inhaled, like a
+connoisseur, more with the imagination than through sense of smell. At
+the same time--a strange thing for him!--he experienced a timidity which
+deprived him of speech; a timidity like that he had felt in his early
+youth when, far from the easy conquests on his estate in Majorca, he
+ventured to address himself to worldly-wise women on the Continent. Was
+it not an unworthy act for him to speak of love to this girl whom he had
+considered a child and who respected him as if he were her father?
+
+"Margalida! Margalida!"
+
+After these exclamations, which aroused the girl's curiosity, making her
+raise her eyes to fix them questioningly on his, he at last began to
+speak, asking her about the progress of the courting. Had she decided
+on anyone? Who was to be the lucky man? The Ironworker? the Minstrel?
+
+She lowered her eyes again, in her confusion picking up a corner of her
+apron and raising it to her bosom. She did not know. She hesitated and
+lisped like a child in her bashfulness. She did not wish to
+marry--neither the Minstrel or the Ironworker, nor anybody. She had
+acquiesced in the courting because all girls did the same when they
+reached a certain age. Besides (here she flushed vividly), it gave her a
+kind of satisfaction to humiliate her friends, who were raging with envy
+on seeing the great number of her suitors. She was grateful to the
+youths who came from great distances to see her, but as for loving one
+of them--or marrying----
+
+She had slackened her pace as she spoke. Pep's wife and his son passed
+on unconsciously, and as the two were left alone in the path, they at
+last stopped, without realizing what they were doing.
+
+"Margalida! Almond Blossom!"
+
+To the devil with shyness! Febrer felt arrogant and masterful as in his
+better days. Why this fear? A peasant girl! A child!
+
+He spoke with a firm accent, trying to fascinate her with the
+impassioned fixedness of her eyes, drawing near her, as if to caress her
+with the music of his words. And how about him? What did Margalida think
+of him? What if he should present himself to Pep some day, telling him
+that he wished to marry his daughter?
+
+"You!" exclaimed the girl. "You, Don Jaime!"
+
+She raised her eyes fearlessly, laughing at the absurdity--the senor was
+accustomed to fooling her with his jests. Her father said that the
+Febrers were all as serious as judges, but ever in a good humor. He was
+jesting at her expense again, as he had done when he had told about his
+clay sweetheart up there in his tower who had been waiting for him a
+thousand years.
+
+But when her glance met Febrer's, seeing his pale face, tense with
+emotion, she turned white also. He seemed a different man; she saw a Don
+Jaime she had never known before. Instinctively, impelled by fear, she
+took a step backward. She remained on the defensive, leaning against the
+slender trunk of a small tree, which grew beside the path, its tiny
+sickly colored leaves almost loosened by the autumn wind.
+
+She could still smile--a forced smile, pretending to believe it one of
+the senor's jokes.
+
+"No," replied Febrer with energy, "I am speaking seriously. Tell me,
+Margalida, Almond Blossom, what if I should become one of your lovers;
+and if I should come to the courting, what would you answer me?"
+
+She shrunk back against the yielding tree trunk, making herself smaller,
+as if she would escape those ardent eyes. Her instinctive backward step
+shook the flexible tree and a shower of yellow leaves, like flakes of
+amber, fell roundabout her, clinging to her hair. Pale, her lips
+compressed and blue, she murmured words scarcely more audible than a
+gentle sigh. Her eyes, enlarged and deep, bore the agonized expression
+of the humble of spirit who think many things, but who find no words to
+express them. He, the heir of the Febrers, a gran senor, to marry a
+peasant girl? Was he crazy?
+
+"No; I am not a great senor; I am an unfortunate creature. You are
+richer than I, who am living off your charity. Your father wishes your
+husband to be a man who shall cultivate his lands. Will you marry me,
+Margalida? Do you love me, Almond Blossom?"
+
+With bowed head, avoiding a glance that seemed to burn her, she
+continued speaking without listening to him. Madness! It could not be
+true! The senor to say such things! He must be dreaming!
+
+Suddenly she felt on one of her hands a light, caressing touch. She
+looked at him again. She saw an unfamiliar face that thrilled her. She
+experienced a sensation of grave danger--the nervous start which gives a
+warning. Her knees shook, they contracted as if she were about to faint
+with fear.
+
+"Do you think me too old?" he murmured in a supplicating voice. "Can you
+never come to love me?"
+
+The voice was sweet and caressing, but those eyes seemed to devour her!
+That pale face, like that of men who kill! She longed to speak, to
+protest at his last words. She had never thought of Don Jaime's age; he
+was something superior, like the saints, who grow in beauty with the
+years. But fear held her silent. She freed herself from the caressing
+hand, she felt moved by the prodigious rebound of her nerves, as if her
+life were in danger, and she fled from Febrer as if he were an assassin.
+
+"Heaven help me!"
+
+Murmuring this supplication she sprang away, and began to run with the
+agility of the country girl, disappearing round a turn in the path.
+
+Jaime did not follow her. He stood motionless in the solitude of the
+pine forest, erect in the pathway, unconscious of his surroundings, like
+the hero of a legend subjected to an enchantment. Then he passed a hand
+over his face, as if awakening from a dream, collecting his thoughts.
+His audacious words stung him with remorse, Margalida's alarm, the
+terrified flight which had terminated the interview. How stupid of him!
+It was the result of his going to the city; the return to civilized
+life which, had upset his bachelor calm, arousing passions of long ago;
+the conversation of the young soldiers, who lived with their thoughts
+ever fixed on women. But no; he did not repent what he had done. It was
+important for Margalida to know what he had so often vaguely thought in
+the isolation of his tower.
+
+He continued slowly along his way to avoid meeting the family from Can
+Mallorqui. Margalida had joined her mother and brother. He saw them from
+a rise of ground, when they were journeying through the valley in the
+direction of the farmhouse.
+
+Febrer changed his route, avoiding Can Mallorqui. He directed his steps
+toward the Pirate's Tower, but when he gained it he passed on, not
+stopping until he reached the sea.
+
+The rock-bound coast, which seemed to overhang the waters, was broken by
+their incessant lashing for century upon century. The waves, like
+furious blue bulls, charged, frothing with anger, against the rock,
+wearing deep caverns, which were prolonged upward in the form of
+vertical cracks. This age-long battle was destroying the coast,
+shattering its stony armor, scale by scale. Colossal wall-like fragments
+loosened. They first separated by forming an imperceptible crevice which
+grew and grew with the passing of centuries. The natural wall leaned for
+years and years above the waves, which beat furiously at its base, until
+it would lose its balance some stormy night and topple like the rampart
+of a besieged citadel, crumbling into blocks, peopling the sea with new
+reefs soon to be covered with slimy vegetation, while the winding
+passages would seethe with foam and sparkle with the metallic gleam of
+fish.
+
+Febrer seated himself on the edge of a great projecting rock, a ledge
+loosened from the coast that inclined boldly over the reefs. His
+fatalism impelled him to sit there. Would that the inevitable
+catastrophe might take place at that moment, and that his body, dragged
+down by the collapsing rock, might disappear in the bottom of the sea,
+having for its sarcophagus this mass, equal to the pyramid of a Pharaoh!
+What had he to look forward to in life?
+
+Before sinking out of sight the setting sun peeped through an opening of
+stormy sky lying between riven clouds. It was a gory sphere, a wafer of
+purple which lightened the immensity of the sea with a fiery glare. The
+dark masses closing in the horizon were fringed with scarlet. A restless
+triangle of flames spread over the dark green waters. The foam turned
+red and the coast looked for an instant like molten lava.
+
+In the glow of this stormy light Jaime contemplated the fluctuation of
+the waters at his feet, hurling their boisterous swirls into the hollows
+of the rock, roaring and writhing, frothing with anger in the winding
+passages between the reefs. In the depths of this greenish mass,
+illuminated by the setting sun with transparencies of opal, he saw
+strange vegetation growing on the rocks, diminutive forests among whose
+clinging fronds moved animals of fantastic form, nervous and swift or
+torpid and sedentary, with hard carapaces, gray and pinkish, bristling
+with defenses, armed with tentacles, with lances and with horns, making
+war among themselves and persecuting the weaker creatures which passed
+like white exhalations, flashing like crystal in the rapidity of their
+flight.
+
+Febrer felt belittled by the solitude. Faith in his human importance
+destroyed, he considered himself no bigger than one of those tiny
+creatures swarming about in the vegetation of the submarine
+abyss--perhaps even smaller. Those animals were armed for life, they
+could sustain themselves by their own strength, never knowing the
+discouragement, the humiliations and the sorrows which afflicted him.
+The grandeur of the sea, unconscious of man, cruel and implacable in its
+anger, overwhelmed Febrer, arousing in his memory an endless chain of
+ideas which were perhaps new, but which he accepted as vague
+reminiscences of a former existence, as something which he had thought
+before, he knew not where nor when.
+
+A thrill of respect, of instinctive devotion, swept over him, making him
+forget the event of a short time before, submerging him in religious
+contemplation. The sea! He thought, he knew not why, of the most remote
+ancestors of humanity, of primitive man, miserable, scarcely emerged
+from original animalism, tormented and repelled on every side by a
+nature hostile in its exhuberance, as a young and vigorous body conquers
+or throws off the parasites which endeavor to live at the cost of its
+organism. On the shore of the sea, in the presence of the divine
+mystery, green and immense, man should experience his most restful
+moments. The earliest gods sprung from the bosom of the waters;
+contemplating the fluctuation of the waves, and soothed by their murmur,
+man should feel that within him is born something new and powerful--a
+soul. The sea! The mysterious organisms which people it also live, as do
+those of the land, subjected to the tyranny of fear, immovable in their
+primitive existence, repeating themselves throughout the centuries as if
+ever the same entity. There also do the dead command! The strong pursue
+the weak, and are in their turn devoured by others more powerful, as in
+the times of their remote progenitors, when the waters were yet warm
+from the formation of the globe--ever the same, repeating themselves
+throughout hundreds of millions of years. A monster of prehistoric ages
+who might return to swim in these waters would find on all sides, in the
+dark chasms, and along the coasts, the same life and the identical
+struggles as in his youth. The animal of combat with his green carapace,
+armed with curving claws and with forceps for torture, implacable
+warrior of the dark submarine caverns, has never united with the
+graceful fish, swift and weak, which trails its rose and silver tunic
+through the transparent waters. His destiny is to devour, to be strong,
+and, if he should find himself disarmed, his defenses broken, to give
+himself up to misfortune without protest and to perish. Death is
+preferable to abdicating one's primal rights, the noble fatality of
+birth. For the strong of the land or of the sea there is no satisfaction
+nor life outside one's own sphere; they are slaves of their own
+greatness; birth brings them misfortunes as well as honors, and it will
+ever be the same! The dead are the only ones who rule the living. The
+first beings who initiated a plan for living wrought with their acts the
+cage in which succeeding generations must be imprisoned.
+
+The tranquil mollusks which he now saw in the depths of the waters,
+clinging to the rocks like dark buttons, seemed to him divine beings who
+guard the mystery of creation in their stupid quiet. He imagined them
+great and imposing like those monsters worshipped by savages for their
+impassivity, and in whose rigidity they believe they divine the majesty
+of the gods. Febrer recalled his jests of other times, on nights of
+feasting, seated before a plate of fresh oysters, in the fashionable
+Parisian restaurants. His elegant companions thought him mad as they
+listened to the nonsensical ideas aroused by wine, the sight of the
+shell fish and the recollection of certain fragmentary reading in his
+youth. "We're going to eat our grandfathers like the merry cannibals
+that we are." The oyster is one of the primitive manifestations of life
+on the planet--one of the earlier forms of organic matter, still
+resting, uncertain and aimless in its evolution in the immensity of the
+waters. The sympathetic and slandered monkey only has the importance of
+a first cousin who has failed to make a career for himself, of an
+unfortunate and absurd relative whom one leaves outside the door,
+feigning ignorance of his family name, denying him a welcome. The
+mollusk is the venerable grandfather, the chief of the house, the
+creator of the dynasty, the ancestor crowned with a nobility of millions
+of centuries. These thoughts came back to Febrer's mind now with the
+vividness of indisputable truths.
+
+Humanity is faithful to its sources. Nobody denies the traditions of
+those venerable ancestors who seemed to be asleep in the immense
+catacomb of the sea. Man thinks himself free because he can move from
+one side of the planet to the other; because his organism is mounted
+upon two agile and articulate columns which permit of his springing over
+the ground by the mechanism of walking--but, it is an error! One more of
+many illusions which deceptively gladden our lives, making us bearers of
+its misery and its triviality! Febrer was convinced that we are all born
+shut in between two valves of prejudices, of scruple, and of pride, an
+inheritance from those who proceeded us, and although man stirs about,
+he never manages to tear himself from the same rock to which his
+predecessors clung and vegetated. Activity, incidents of life,
+independence of character, all are illusions, the vanity of the mollusk
+which dreams while adhering to the rock, and imagines he is swimming
+through all the seas on the globe, while his valves continue fastened
+to the stone!
+
+All creatures are as those who have gone before, and as those yet to
+come. They change in shape, but the soul remains stationary and
+immutable like that of those rudimentary beings, eternal witnesses of
+the first palpitation of life on the planet, which seemed to be sleeping
+the heaviest of sleeps; and thus will it ever be. Vain are great efforts
+to free oneself from this fatal environment, from the heritage of fear,
+from the circle in which we are forced to move, until at last comes
+death. Then other animals like ourselves appear, and begin whirling
+around the same circle, imagining themselves free because ever before
+their footsteps they have new space in which to run.
+
+"The dead command!" Jaime once more declared to himself. It seemed
+impossible that men do not realize this great truth; that they dwell in
+eternal night, believing that they make new things in the glow of
+illusions which rise daily, as rises the great deception of the sun to
+accompany us through the infinite, which is dark, but which seems to us
+blue and radiant with light.
+
+When Febrer thought this, the sun had already set. The sea was almost
+black, the sky a leaden gray, and in the fog on the horizon the
+lightning quivered and flashed. Jaime felt on his face and on his hands
+the moist kiss of drops of rain. A storm was about to break which
+perhaps would last throughout the night. The lightning flashes were
+coming nearer, a distant crashing was heard, as if two hostile fleets
+were cannonading beyond the curtain of fog on the horizon, and
+approaching each other behind its screen. The sheet of quiet water,
+glossy as crystal between reefs and coast, began to tremble with the
+widening undulations of the raindrops.
+
+In spite of this he did not stir. He remained seated on the rock,
+experiencing a fierce anger against fate, rebelling with all the
+strength of his nature at the tyranny of the past. Why should the dead
+command? Why should they darken the atmosphere with the dust of their
+souls, like powdered bone lodging in the brains of the living, imposing
+the old ideas?
+
+Suddenly Febrer experienced an overwhelming impression, as if he beheld
+an extraordinary light, never before seen. His brain seemed to dilate,
+to expand like a mass of water bursting an encompassing vessel of stone.
+At that instant a lightning flash colored the sea with livid light, and
+a thunder clap burst above his head, its echoes rattling with awesome
+reverberation over the expanse of the sea, in the caverns, and over the
+hilltops along the shore.
+
+No, the dead do not command! The dead do not rule! As if he were a
+different man, Jaime ridiculed his recent thoughts. Those rudimentary
+animals which he had seen among the rocks, and with them all creatures
+of the sea and of the earth, suffer the slavery of fear. The dead rule
+them because they do the same things which their ancestors did, the same
+things their descendants will do. But man is not the slave of fear; he
+is its collaborator and sometimes its master. Man is a progressive and
+reasoning being, and can change his condition to suit his desires. Man
+was a slave to his surroundings in former times, in remote ages, but
+when he conquered nature and exploited her, he burst the fatal bondage
+in which other created things still remain prisoners. What matters to
+him the fear in which he has been born? He can make himself over anew if
+he will.
+
+Jaime could not continue his reflections. Rain was streaming over the
+brim of his hat, running down his back. Night had suddenly come. By the
+glare of the lightning he saw the glazed surface of the sea trembling
+with the beating of the rain.
+
+Febrer made all haste toward his tower, but he was happy, eager to run,
+with the overflowing joy of one emerging from long imprisonment and who
+has not before him space enough for his repressed activity.
+
+"I will do what I please!" he shouted, rejoicing at the sound of his own
+voice, which was lost in the clamor of the storm. "Neither dead nor
+living shall rule me! What do I care for my noble forefathers, for my
+moth-eaten prejudices, for all the Febrers?"
+
+Suddenly he was enveloped in a carmine light, and a cannon-shot burst
+above his head, as if the coast had been rent asunder by the shock of an
+immense catastrophe.
+
+"That must have struck near here," said Jaime, referring to the electric
+flash.
+
+His mind occupied with the Febrers, he thought of his ancestor the
+knight commander Don Priamo. The explosion of thunder recalled to his
+mind the combats of the diabolical hero, the religious cavalier of the
+Cross, a mocker of God and of the devil who always followed his
+sovereign will, fighting on the side of his kindred, or living among the
+enemies of the Faith, according to his caprices or his affections.
+
+No! Febrer did not repudiate him. He adored the valorous knight
+commander; he was his true forbear, the best of them all, the rebel, the
+demon of the family!
+
+Jaime entered the tower and struck a light; he flung around his
+shoulders the Arabian haik of coarse weave that served him for his
+nocturnal excursions, and taking a book he tried to distract himself
+until Pepet should bring his supper.
+
+The storm seemed to be centered on the island. The rain fell on the
+fields, converting them, into marshes; it rushed down the declivities of
+the roadways, overflowing like rivers; it soaked the mountains like
+great sponges through the porous soil of the pine forest and thickets.
+The flare of the lightning gave hasty glimpses, like visions in a dream,
+of the blackish sea, the fretting foam, and flooded fields, which seemed
+filled with fiery fish, the trees glistening beneath their watery
+mantles.
+
+In the kitchen of Can Mallorqui Margalida's suitors stood in a group, in
+damp, steaming clothing and muddy sandals. Tonight the courting lasted
+longer. Pep, with a paternal air, had allowed the youths to remain after
+the time for the wooing had passed; he felt sorry for the poor boys who
+must walk home through the rain. He had been a suitor himself once upon
+a time. They might wait; perhaps the storm would soon pass; and if it
+did not they should stay and sleep wherever they could, in the kitchen,
+on the porch. "One wouldn't turn out a dog on such a night."
+
+The youths, rejoicing in the event, which added more time to their
+courting, gazed at Margalida arrayed in her gala dress, seated in the
+center of the room, a vacant chair beside her. Each one had taken his
+turn at sitting upon it during the course of the evening, and now all
+looked at it eagerly, but lacked courage to occupy it again.
+
+The Ironworker, wishing to outshine the others, was twanging a guitar,
+singing in low tones, accompanied by the rolling of the thunder. The
+Minstrel, sitting in a corner, was meditating new verses. Some boys
+hailed with mocking words the lightning flashes, which filtered through
+the cracks of the door, and the Little Chaplain smiled, sitting on the
+floor, his chin in his hands.
+
+Pep was dozing in a low chair, overcome by weariness, and his wife
+screamed with terror whenever a loud thunder clap shook the house,
+interjecting between her groans fragments of prayers, murmured in
+Castilian for greater efficacy: "_Santa Barbara bendita, que en el cielo
+estas escrita_----" Margalida, heedless of the glances of her suitors,
+seemed half dead with fright.
+
+Suddenly there came two taps upon the door. The dog, who had scrambled
+to his feet scenting the presence of someone on the porch, stretched his
+neck, but instead of barking he wagged his tail in welcome.
+
+Margalida and her mother glanced fearfully toward the door. Who could it
+be, at that time, on that night, in the solitude of Can Mallorqui? Had
+anything happened to the senor?
+
+Aroused by the knocking, Pep sat up straight in his chair. "Come in,
+whoever you are!" He gave the invitation with the dignity of a Roman
+paterfamilias, absolute master of his house. The door was not locked.
+
+It opened, giving passage to a gust of rain-laden wind, which made the
+candle flicker, and refreshed the dense atmosphere of the kitchen. The
+dark rectangle of the doorway was lighted by the splendor of a lightning
+flash, and all saw in it, against the livid sky, a kind of penitent,
+with half-concealed face, a hooded figure, dripping rain.
+
+He entered with firm tread, with no word of greeting, followed by the
+dog sniffing at his legs with affectionate growls. He strode directly
+toward the vacant chair beside Margalida, the place reserved for the
+suitors.
+
+As he took his seat he flung back his hood and fixed his eyes on the
+girl.
+
+"Ah!" she gasped, turning pale, her eyes widening in surprise.
+
+So great was her emotion, so violent, her impulse to draw away from him,
+that she nearly fell to the floor.
+
+
+
+
+PART THIRD
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+THE INTRUDER
+
+
+Two days later, when Don Jaime was awaiting his dinner in the tower,
+having returned from a fishing excursion, Pep presented himself and
+deposited the basket upon the table with an air of solemnity.
+
+The rustic tried to make excuse for this extraordinary visit. His wife
+and Margalida had gone to the hermitage of the Cubells again, and the
+boy had accompanied them.
+
+Febrer began to eat with a lusty appetite after having been on the sea
+since daybreak, but the serious air of the peasant at last claimed his
+attention.
+
+"Pep, you want to say something to me, but you are afraid," said Jaime,
+in the Ivizan dialect.
+
+"That is true, senor."
+
+Like all timid persons who doubt and vacillate before speaking, but rush
+into it impetuously when fear is overcome, Pep bluntly unburdened his
+mind.
+
+Yes, he had something to say; something very important! He had been
+thinking the matter over for two whole days, and he could keep silent no
+longer. He had taken it upon himself to bring the senor's dinner merely
+for the sake of speaking. Why did Don Jaime make fun of those who were
+so fond of him? What did he mean?
+
+"Make fun of you!" exclaimed Febrer.
+
+"Yes, make fun of us!" Pep declared sadly. "How about what happened that
+stormy night? What caprice impelled the senor to present himself at the
+courting, taking the chair beside Margalida, as if he were a suitor? Ah,
+Don Jaime! The 'festeigs' are solemn occasions; men kill one another on
+account of them. I knew that fine gentlemen laugh at all this, and
+consider the peasants of the island about the same as savages; but the
+poor should be left to their customs, and they should not be disturbed
+in their few pleasures."
+
+Now it was Febrer who assumed a serious countenance.
+
+"But I am not making fun of you, my dear Pep! It's all true! Listen! I
+am one of Margalida's suitors, like the Minstrel, like the detested
+Ironworker, like all other boys who gather in your kitchen to court her.
+I came the other night because I could bear no more, because I suddenly
+realized the cause of all that I have been suffering, because I love
+Margalida, and I will marry her if she will accept me."
+
+His sincere and impassioned accent banished all doubt from the peasant's
+mind.
+
+"Then it is really true!" he exclaimed. "The girl had told me something
+of this, weeping, when I asked her the motive of the senor's visit. I
+could not believe her at first. Girls are so pretentious! They imagine
+that every man is running mad after them; so it is really true!"
+
+This knowledge caused him to smile, as at something unexpected and
+amusing.
+
+"What a strange man you are, Don Jaime! It is very kind of you to make
+demonstrations of esteem for the household of Can Mallorqui; but it is
+not good for the girl, for she was giving herself airs, imagining
+herself worthy of a prince, and will not accept any of the peasants.
+
+"It cannot be, senor. Don't you understand that it cannot be? I was
+young myself once, and I know what it is; how one takes a notion to
+chase after any girl who is not ugly; but later on one reflects, he
+thinks about what is good and what is not good, what is proper, and in
+the end he does not commit a foolish deed. Have you thought it over,
+really, senor? That was a joke the other night, a caprice----"
+
+Febrer shook his head energetically. No, neither a joke nor a caprice.
+He loved Margalida, the graceful Almond Blossom; he was convinced of his
+passion, and he would follow wherever she might lead. He intended in
+future to do as he pleased, laying aside scruples and prejudices. He had
+been a slave to them long enough. No; he would have no regret. He loved
+Margalida, he was one of her suitors, with the same right as any island
+youth. He meant every word he said.
+
+Pep, scandalized at these words, wounded in his most conventional and
+ancient ideas, raised his hands, while his simple soul showed in his
+eyes full of fear and surprise.
+
+"Oh, Lord! Oh, Lord!"
+
+He was compelled to call upon the ruler of heaven to give expression to
+his perturbation and astonishment. A Febrer wishing to marry a peasant
+of Can Mallorqui! The world was no longer the same; it seemed as if all
+the laws of the universe were turned upside down, as if the sea were
+about to cover the island, and that in future the almond trees would put
+forth their flowers above the waves; but had Don Jaime realized what
+this desire of his signified?
+
+All the respect engendered in the soul of the peasant during long years
+of servitude to the noble family, the religious veneration his parents
+had infounded in him when, in his childhood, he saw the gentlemen from
+Majorca arrive at the island, was now revived, protesting at this
+absurdity, as something contrary to human custom and to the divine will.
+Don Jaime's father had been a powerful personage, one of those who made
+laws over there in Madrid; he had even lived in the royal palace. He
+still saw him in his memory, just as he had imagined him in the
+credulous illusions of boyhood, bending men to his will; able to send
+some to the gallows and pardoning others according to his caprice;
+seated at the table of monarchs and playing cards with them, just as Pep
+himself might do with a crony in the tavern at San Jose; addressing one
+another by the familiar "thou"; and when he was not in the court city,
+he was an absolute seignior in vessels of iron--the kind that spit smoke
+and cannon balls. How about Jaime's grandfather, Don Horacio? Pep had
+seen him but few times, and yet he still trembled with respect as he
+recalled his regal appearance, his grave, unsmiling face, and the
+imposing gesture which accompanied his benevolent acts. He was a king
+after the ancient style, one of those kings who are good and just
+fathers of the poor, offering bread with one hand and holding a rod in
+the other.
+
+"And do you wish to have Pep, the poor peasant of Can Mallorqui, become
+a relative of your father and of your grandfather and of all those great
+lords who were masters in Majorca and rulers of the world? Come, Don
+Jaime, I can't help thinking it all a joke; your seriousness does not
+deceive me. Don Horacio also used to say the funniest things without
+losing his judge's face."
+
+Jaime swept his eyes around the interior of the tower, smiling at his
+poverty.
+
+"But I am poor, Pep! You are rich, compared to me. Why think of my
+family, when I am living on your generosity? If you were to cast me out
+I would not know where to go."
+
+The gesture of incredulity with which Pep always received such humble
+declarations, was renewed.
+
+Poor? But was not this tower his? Febrer replied with a smile. Bah! Four
+old stones that were falling apart; an unproductive hill, which would be
+worth something only if the peasant should cultivate it. But the latter
+insisted; there was the property in Majorca, which, even though it were
+somewhat encumbered, was much--much!
+
+And he extended his arms with a gesture indicating immensity, as if no
+one could measure the fortune of Jaime, adding convincingly:
+
+"A Febrer is never poor. You can never be that. Better days will come."
+
+Jaime ceased trying to make him realize his poverty. If he thought him
+rich so much the better. Thus those youths, who knew no broader horizon
+than that of the island, could not say that he was a ruined man seeking
+to marry into Pep's family in order to recover the lands of Can
+Mallorqui.
+
+Why should the peasant be so surprised at his desire to marry Margalida?
+In the end it was nothing more than the repetition of an eternal
+history, that of the disguised and vagabond king falling in love with
+the shepherdess and giving her his hand. He was no king, neither was he
+in disguise, but in a situation of absolute need.
+
+"I have heard that story," said Pep. "It was often told me when I was a
+child, and I have told it to my own children. I won't say that it never
+happened so, but that was in other times--other times, very long ago,
+when animals had speech."
+
+According to Pep, the most remote antiquity, and also the elysian state
+of man, was always that joyous time "when the animals had speech."
+
+But now--now he, although he could not read, informed himself of the
+doings in the world when he went to San Jose on Sundays and talked with
+the secretary of the pueblo, and other lettered persons who read the
+newspapers. Now-a-days kings married queens, and shepherdesses married
+shepherds; everyone with his kind. The good old times were over.
+
+"But do you know whether or not Margalida loves me? Are you sure that
+all this seems to her a wild dream as it does to you?"
+
+Pep maintained a long silence, one hand beneath his hat and the silk
+kerchief, which he wore in womanish manner, scratching his crisp gray
+curls. He smiled knavishly, with an expression of scorn, as if rejoicing
+over the inferiority in which dwells the woman of the fields.
+
+"Women! How can one tell what they think, Don Jaime! Margalida is like
+all the rest of them, fond of vanities and strange things. At her age
+they all dream that some count or marquis is coming to take them, away
+in his golden chariot, and that all her friends will die of envy. I,
+too, when I was a boy, used often to think that the richest girl in
+Iviza would come to seek my hand in marriage, some girl, I did not know
+who, but beautiful as the Virgin and with fields as big as half the
+island--dreams of youth."
+
+Then ceasing to smile, he added:
+
+"Yes, maybe she does care for you without realizing it. Youth and love
+are so strange. She cries when anything is said to her about the other
+night; she declares it was madness, but she won't say a word against
+you. Ah, would that I could see into her heart!"
+
+Febrer received these words with a smile of joy, but the peasant quickly
+dispelled it, adding energetically:
+
+"It cannot be, and it must not be! Let her think as she pleases, but I
+am opposed because I am her father and I desire her welfare. Ah, Don
+Jaime, everyone with his kind! All this reminds me of a priest who used
+to lead a hermit's life at Cubells, a wise man, and like many wise men,
+half crazy; he was trying to raise a brood from, a rooster and a
+seagull; a gull the size of a goose."
+
+With the interest which the rustic displays for the breeding of animals,
+he described the eagerness of the peasants when they went to Cubells,
+gathering curiously around the great cage, where the rooster and the
+gull were kept beneath the vigilance of the friar.
+
+"The good man's work lasted for years--but--not a chick! Man's efforts
+avail nothing against the impossible. They were of different blood and
+of different breed; they lived together tranquilly, but they were not of
+the same sort, nor could they become so. Everyone with his kind!"
+
+As he said this, Pep gathered the plates and the remnants of the dinner
+from the table and put them into the basket, preparing to take his
+leave.
+
+"We are agreed, Don Jaime," he said with his rustic tenacity, "that it
+was all a joke, and that you will not bother the girl any more with your
+notions."
+
+"No, Pep, we are agreed that I love Margalida, and that I am going to
+her courting with the same right as any of the island boys. The old
+customs must be respected."
+
+He smiled at the peasant's ill-humored expression. Pep shook his head in
+sign of protest. No; he repeated, that would be impossible. The girls
+of the district would laugh at Margalida, rejoicing over this strange
+suitor who broke the order of customs; the malicious would perhaps lie
+about Can Mallorqui, which had as honorable a past as the best family on
+the island; even his own friends, when he should go to mass at San Jose,
+and all gathered in the cloister of the church, would imagine him an
+ambitious man who desired to convert his daughter into a fine senorita.
+And this was not all. There was the anger of the rivals to be reckoned
+with, the jealousy of those youths, dumb with surprise when he came in
+that stormy night and sat down beside Margalida. Certainly by this time
+they had recovered from their astonishment and were talking about him,
+and would all join to oppose the stranger. The men of the island were as
+they were. They took life among themselves without disturbing the man
+from the outside world because they considered him foreign to their
+circle, and indifferent to their passions; but if the stranger meddled
+in their affairs, and especially if he were a Majorcan, what would
+happen? When had people of other lands ever disputed a sweetheart with
+an Ivizan?
+
+"Don Jaime, for the sake of your father, for the sake of your noble
+grandfather! It is Pep who begs you, Pep who has known you ever since
+you were a boy. The farmhouse is at your service; everyone who lives in
+it is eager to serve you--but do not persist in this caprice! It will
+bring some dire misfortune upon us all!"
+
+Febrer, who had at first listened with deference, straightened his
+figure when he heard Pep's predictions. His rude nature rebelled, as if
+the peasant's fears were an insult. He afraid! He felt equal to fighting
+all the young men of the island. Not a man in Iviza could force him to
+change his mind. To the belligerent passion of the lover was joined the
+pride of race, that ancestral hatred which separated the inhabitants of
+the two islands. He would go to the courting; he had good companions to
+defend him in case of need; and he glanced at the gun hanging on the
+wall; then his eyes descended to his belt where his revolver was hidden.
+
+Pep bowed his head in despair. He had been just like this when he was
+young. For women the wildest deeds are done. It was useless to make
+further effort to convince the senor, who was determined and proud like
+all his kindred.
+
+"Do as you please, Don Jaime; but remember what I tell you. A great
+misfortune awaits us--a great misfortune!"
+
+The peasant left the tower, and Jaime watched him walking down toward
+the farmhouse, the points of his kerchief and the womanish mantle he
+wore over his shoulders fluttering in the breeze.
+
+Pep disappeared behind the fence of Can Mallorqui. Febrer was about to
+step away from the door when he saw rise from among the groups of
+tamarisks on the hillside a boy, who, after glancing cautiously about to
+convince himself that he was not observed, ran toward him. It was the
+Little Chaplain. He sprang up the stairway to the tower, and when he
+stood before Febrer he burst out laughing, displaying his ivory teeth,
+surrounded by a dark rose color.
+
+Ever since that night when Febrer had presented himself at the farmhouse
+the Little Chaplain had treated him with greater confidence, as if he
+already considered him one of the family. He did not protest at the
+strangeness of the event. It seemed to him quite natural that Margalida
+should like the senor and that he should wish to marry her.
+
+"But didn't you go to Cubells?" asked Febrer.
+
+The boy began to laugh again. He had left his mother and sister half way
+on the road and had hidden among the tamarisks waiting for his father to
+leave the tower. No doubt the old man wished to have a serious talk with
+Don Jaime, and so he had sent them all away, and had taken it upon
+himself to bring him his dinner. For two days he had talked of nothing
+but this interview. His timidity, and his respect for the master, had
+made him vacillate, but at last he had decided. He was in ill humor over
+Margalida's courting. Had the old man scolded very hard?
+
+Evading these questions, Febrer asked the boy with a certain anxiety,
+"How is Almond Blossom? What did she say when you talked to her about
+me?"
+
+The boy straightened himself petulantly, happy in being able to defend
+the senor. His sister had not said anything; sometimes she smiled when
+she heard Don Jaime's name mentioned, again her eyes moistened, and she
+almost always brought the conversation to a close, advising the Little
+Chaplain not to meddle in this affair and to please his father by going
+back to his studies in the Seminary.
+
+"It will turn out all right, senor," continued the boy, possessed of a
+fresh sense of his own importance. "It will turn out all right, I tell
+you. I am sure that my sister loves you dearly--only she is rather
+afraid of you--she feels a kind of respect. Who would ever have thought
+that you would notice her! At home everybody seems to be crazy; father
+looks cross and goes around grumbling to himself; mother sighs and calls
+on the Virgin, and meantime people imagine that we are rejoicing. But it
+will all come out right, Don Jaime, I promise you.
+
+"But be careful, senor, be on your guard," added the boy, thinking of
+his former friends, the youths who were courting Almond Blossom. It
+seemed that the boys had lost confidence in him, and were cautious of
+speaking in his presence; but they were certainly plotting something. A
+week ago they seemed to hate one another and each kept to himself, but
+now they had joined forces in hatred of the stranger. They said nothing;
+they were merely taciturn; but their silence was disquieting. The
+Minstrel was the only one who shouted and displayed anger like an
+infuriated lamb, straightened his wasted figure, and declaring, between
+cruel fits of coughing, his intention of killing the Majorcan.
+
+"They have lost respect for you, Don Jaime," continued the boy. "When
+they saw you come in and sit down beside my sister they were astounded.
+Even I could hardly believe my eyes, although for some time I knew that
+you were not indifferent to Margalida; you asked too many questions
+about her. But now they have waked up, and they are planning something.
+They have good reason, too. Who ever heard of such a thing as a stranger
+coming to San Jose and getting a sweetheart away from a crowd of the
+boys, the very bravest on the island?"
+
+Local pride spurred the Little Chaplain to adopt for a moment the
+opinions of the others, but soon his gratitude and affection for Febrer
+were revived.
+
+"Never mind. You love her and that is sufficient. Why should my sister
+have to wear out her life digging in the ground when a senor like
+yourself pays attention to her? Besides," here the young rascal smiled
+mischievously, "this marriage suits me. You are not going to till the
+fields, you will take Margalida away with you, and the old man, having
+no one to leave Can Mallorqui to, will let me marry and become a
+farmer, and, adios to the priesthood! I tell you, Don Jaime, you'll win.
+Here am I, the Little Chaplain, to fight half the island in your
+defense."
+
+He glanced about as if expecting to encounter the severe eyes and the
+mustaches of the Civil Guard, and then, after a moment's hesitation,
+like that of a great but modest man trying to conceal his importance, he
+drew from his belt a knife the brilliancy and glitter of which seemed to
+hypnotize him.
+
+"See that?" he asked, admiring the smoothness of the virgin steel, and
+looking at Febrer.
+
+It was the knife which Jaime had presented him the day before. Jaime had
+been in a good humor and he had made the Little Chaplain kneel. Then,
+with jesting gravity, he had struck him with the weapon, proclaiming him
+invincible knight of the district of San Jose, of the whole island, and
+of the channels and cliffs adjacent. The little rascal, tremulous with
+emotion at the gift, had taken the act with all gravity, thinking it an
+indispensable ceremony among gentlemen.
+
+"See that?" he asked again, looking a Don Jaime as if protecting him
+with all the immensity of his valor.
+
+He passed a finger lightly along the edge, pressing the fleshy tip
+against the point, delighting in the sharp prick. What a jewel!
+
+Febrer nodded his head. Yes, he recognized the weapon; it was the one he
+had brought from Iviza.
+
+"Well, with this," continued the boy, "not a brave will dare to face us.
+The Ironworker? He is a fraud! The Minstrel and all the rest? Frauds
+also. I'm only waiting for a chance to use this! Anybody who attempts
+anything against you is sentenced to death."
+
+Finally, with the sadness of a great man who is wasting his time
+without an opportunity to display his valor, he said, lowering his eyes:
+
+"When my grandfather was my age they say that he had already killed his
+man, and that half the island stood in fear of him."
+
+The Little Chaplain spent part of the afternoon in the tower talking of
+Don Jaime's supposed enemies, whom he now considered as his own, putting
+up his knife and drawing it forth again, as if he enjoyed contemplating
+his disfigured image in the polished blade, dreaming of tremendous
+battles which always terminated by the flight or death of the
+adversaries, and by his valorously rescuing the embattled Don Jaime, who
+took as a jest his appetite for conflict and destruction.
+
+In the evening Pepet went down to the farmhouse to get Don Jaime's
+supper. He had found the suitors who came from a distance sitting on the
+porch awaiting the beginning of the festeig. "See you later, Don Jaime!"
+
+As soon as night closed in, Febrer made his preparations, his face set,
+his mien hostile, his hands thrilling with an imperceptible homicidal
+twitch, like a primitive warrior starting on an expedition from the
+mountain top to the valley. Before throwing his haik over his shoulders,
+he drew his revolver from his belt, scrupulously examining the
+cartridges, and the working of the trigger. Everything all right! The
+first man to make an attempt against him would get all six shots in the
+head. He felt like a savage, implacable, like one of those Febrers,
+lions of the sea, who landed on hostile shores, killing to avoid being
+killed.
+
+With one hand in his belt fondling the butt of his revolver, he walked
+down the hill among the clusters of tamarisks, which waved their
+undulating masses in the darkness. He found the porch of Can Mallorqui
+full of young men standing about, or seated on the benches, waiting
+while the family finished supper in the kitchen. Febrer detected them in
+the dim light by the odor of hemp emanating from their new sandals, and
+from the coarse wool of their mantles and Arabian capes. The red sparks
+of cigarettes at the lower end of the porch indicated other waiting
+groups.
+
+"Bona nit!" called Febrer in greeting.
+
+They responded only with a careless grunt. The low-toned conversations
+ceased, and a painful and hostile silence seemed to settle around each
+man.
+
+Jaime leaned against a pillar of the porch, his head held high, his
+bearing arrogant, his figure standing erect against the horizon, and it
+seemed as if he could feel the hostile eyes fixed on him under cover of
+the darkness.
+
+He felt a certain emotion, but it was not fear. He almost forgot the
+enemies who surrounded him. He was thinking uneasily of Margalida. He
+experienced the thrill of the enamored man when he divines the proximity
+of the beloved woman and is in doubt as to his fate, fearing and at the
+same time desiring her approach. Certain memories of the past returned,
+causing him to smile. What would Mary Gordon say if she could see him
+surrounded by this rustic crowd, tremulous and vacillating as he thought
+of the proximity of a peasant girl? How his women friends in Madrid and
+in Paris would laugh if they should come upon him engaged in this rustic
+project, ready to take life over the conquest of a woman almost on a
+level with their servants!
+
+A door opened, outlining in its rectangle of ruddy light the silhouette
+of Pep.
+
+"Come in, men!" he said, like a patriarch who understands the desires of
+youth and laughs good-naturedly at them.
+
+The young men entered one after the other, greeting Senor Pep and his
+family, taking their seats on benches or chairs like schoolboys.
+
+As the peasant of Can Mallorqui recognized the senor he started in
+surprise. Don Jaime there, waiting like the others, like an ordinary
+suitor, without venturing to enter this house, which was his own! Febrer
+replied with a shrug of the shoulders. He preferred to do as did the
+others. He imagined that thus it would be easier to accomplish his
+purpose. He did not wish to have his former condition recalled--he was a
+suitor, nothing more.
+
+Pep forced him to sit beside him, and tried to entertain him with
+conversation, but Febrer did not take his eyes off Almond Blossom, who,
+faithful to the ritual of such occasions, was seated in a chair in the
+center of the room, receiving the admiration of her suitors with the
+demeanor of a timid queen.
+
+One after another took his place beside Margalida, who responded to
+their words in a low voice. She pretended not to see Don Jaime; she
+almost turned her back upon him. The suitors, awaiting their turns, were
+silent, not keeping up the merry chattering with which they had whiled
+away the time on other nights. Gloom seemed to weigh upon them,
+compelling them to silence, with lowered gaze and compressed lips, as if
+a dead man were lying in the adjoining room. It was the presence of the
+stranger, the intruder, foreign to their class and to their customs.
+Accursed Majorcan!
+
+When all the youths had sat in the seat beside Margalida, the senor
+arose. He was the last one to present himself as a suitor, and,
+according to rule, it was his turn. Pep, who had been talking to him
+ceaselessly to distract his attention, suddenly remained open-mouthed in
+surprise at seeing him move away.
+
+He sat down beside Margalida, who seemed not to see him, her head bowed
+and her eyes lowered. The young men remained silent in order to catch
+the stranger's faintest words, but Pep, realizing their plan, began to
+speak in a loud voice to his wife and son about some work to be done the
+next day.
+
+"Margalida! Almond Blossom!"
+
+Febrer's voice sounded like a caressing whisper in the girl's ear. He
+had come to convince her that what she had considered a caprice was
+love, true love. Febrer hardly knew how it had come about. He had felt
+ill at ease in his solitude, experiencing a vague desire for better
+things, which perhaps lay within his reach, but which he in his
+blindness could not recognize, until suddenly he had seen clearly where
+joy was to be found. That joy was herself. Margalida! Almond Blossom! He
+was not young, he was poor, but he loved her so much! Only a word, some
+sign to dissipate his uncertainty!
+
+But the girl gently shook her head. "No; no. Go! I am afraid!" She
+raised her eyes and glanced uneasily at all the brown youths with their
+tragic mien, who seemed to scorch the pair with their blazing eyes.
+
+Afraid! This word sufficed to arouse Febrer from his beseeching attitude
+and to cause him to stare defiantly at the rivals seated before him.
+Afraid? Of whom? He felt equal to fighting all those rustics and their
+innumerable relatives. Afraid! No, Margalida! She need not fear either
+for herself or for him. He begged her to answer his question. Could he
+hope? What did she intend to reply?
+
+Margalida remained silent, her lips colorless, her cheeks a livid
+pallor, winking her eyes to conceal her tears. She was going to cry. Her
+efforts to restrain her tears were apparent; she sighed with anguish.
+Tears, suddenly bursting forth in this hostile atmosphere, might be a
+sign for battle; they would bring about the explosion of all that
+restrained anger which she divined around her. No, no! This effort of
+her will served only to enhance her misery, compelling her to bow her
+head like those sweet and gentle animals who think to save themselves
+from danger by hiding their heads.
+
+Her mother who sat in a corner weaving baskets, grew alarmed. With
+feminine intuition she realized Margalida's suffering. Her husband,
+seeing the anxiety in her sad, resigned eyes, intervened opportunely.
+
+"Half past nine!" There was a movement of surprise and protest from the
+youths. It was early yet; it lacked many minutes of the hour; the
+agreement should rule. But Pep, with the stubbornness of the rustic,
+would not listen. Repeating the words, he arose and strode toward the
+door, opening it wide. "Half past nine!" Every man was master of his own
+house, and he did as he thought best in his. He had to get up early the
+next morning. "Bona nit!"
+
+He spoke courteously to each of the suitors as they filed out of the
+house. As Jaime passed, gloomy and crestfallen, Pep grasped his arm. He
+must remain; Pep would accompany him to the tower. He glanced uneasily
+at the Ironworker, who was behind him, the last to take his leave.
+
+The senor did not reply, freeing his arm with a brusque movement.
+Accompany him! He was furious on account of Margalida's silence, which
+he considered crushing; on account of the hostile attitude of the young
+men; on account of the strange way in which the evening had been brought
+to a close.
+
+The young suitors dispersed in the darkness, without shouts, or
+whistling, or songs, as if returning from a funeral. Something tragic
+seemed to be floating on the dark wings of night.
+
+Febrer walked on until he arrived at the foot of the hill, where the
+tamarisk shrubs were thickest; then he turned, and stood motionless. His
+silhouette stood out against the whiteness of the path in the pale light
+of the stars. He held his revolver in his right hand, nervously
+clutching the breech, caressing the trigger with a feverish finger,
+eager to fire. Was no one following him? Did not the Ironworker or any
+of his other enemies lurk behind him?
+
+Time passed, and no one appeared. The wild vegetation around him,
+enlarged by shadow and by mystery, seemed to laugh sarcastically at his
+anger. At last the fresh serenity of drowsy Nature seemed to penetrate
+his soul. He shrugged his shoulders scornfully, and holding his revolver
+before him walked on until he locked himself in his tower.
+
+He spent the whole of the next day on the sea with Tio Ventolera.
+Returning to his dwelling he found the supper, which the Little Chaplain
+had brought him, cold on the table.
+
+The following day the boy of Can Mallorqui appeared with a mysterious
+air. He had important things to tell Don Jaime. The afternoon before,
+when he had been hunting a certain bird in the pine forest near the
+Ironworker's forge, he had seen the man from a distance talking with the
+Minstrel beneath the porch of the blacksmith shop.
+
+"And what else?" asked Febrer, wondering that the boy had no more to
+say.
+
+Nothing else. Did that seem unimportant? The Minstrel was not fond of
+the mountains, for climbing made him cough. He always traveled through
+the valleys, sitting under the almond and fig trees to compose his
+verses. If he had gone up to the blacksmith shop it was undoubtedly
+because the Ironworker had sent for him. The two were talking with great
+animation. The Ironworker seemed to be giving advice, and the sick boy
+was listening with affirmative gestures.
+
+"And what of that?" Febrer asked.
+
+The Little Chaplain seemed to pity the senor's simplicity.
+
+"Be careful, Don Jaime. You don't know the men of the island. This
+conversation at the forge means something. This is Saturday, courting
+night. I am sure they are plotting to do you harm if you come down to
+Can Mallorqui."
+
+Febrer received these words with a gesture of scorn. He would be there,
+in spite of everything. Did they imagine they could frighten him? The
+only thing he regretted was that they delayed so long in attacking him.
+
+He spent the rest of the day in a state of nervous anger, eager for
+night to come. He avoided approaching Can Mallorqui in his walks, gazing
+at it from a distance, in the hope of catching a glimpse of the slender
+figure of Margalida. Since he had become a suitor he could not present
+himself as a friend. A visit from him might prove embarrassing for Pep's
+family, and also he feared that the girl might conceal herself on seeing
+him approach.
+
+As soon as the sun had set and the stars appeared in the clear winter
+sky with the keenness of points of ice, Febrer descended from the tower.
+
+During his brief walk to the farmhouse, recollections of the past
+returned again with ironic precision, as they had done on the former
+courting night.
+
+"If Mary Gordon should see me!" he thought. "Perhaps she would compare
+me to a rustic Siegfried going forth to slay the dragon, which guards
+the treasure of Iviza. If certain cynical women I have known should see
+me!"
+
+But his love immediately effaced these recollections. What if they
+should see him! Margalida was better than all the women he had ever
+known; she was the first, the only one. All his past life seemed to him
+false, artificial, like the life presented on the stage, painted and
+covered with tinsel beneath a deceptive light. He would never return to
+that world of fiction. The present was reality.
+
+Arrived at the porch, he found all the suitors, who seemed to be talking
+in smothered voices. When they saw him they instantly became silent.
+
+"Bona nit!"
+
+No one replied. They did not even receive him with the grunt of the
+other night.
+
+When Pep, opening the door, gave them entrance to the kitchen, Febrer
+saw that the Minstrel had a small drum hanging from one arm and was
+carrying the drum stick in his right hand.
+
+It was to be an evening of music. Some of the youths smiled with a
+wicked expression when they took their places, as if rejoicing in
+advance over something extraordinary. Others, more serious, showed in
+their faces the noble disgust of those who fear to witness an inevitable
+evil deed. The Ironworker remained impassive in one of the farthest
+corners, shrinking down so as to remain unnoticed among his comrades.
+
+A few of the youths had talked with Margalida, when suddenly, the
+Minstrel, seeing the chair unoccupied, approached and took his seat in
+it, holding the drum between his knee and his elbow, and resting his
+forehead in his left hand. He slowly beat the drum, while a prolonged
+hissing demanded silence. It was a new song; every Saturday the Minstrel
+came with fresh verses in honor of the daughter of the house. The charm
+of wild and barbarous music, admired since childhood, compelled all to
+listen. The sacred emotion of poesy made these simple souls thrill in
+advance.
+
+The poor consumptive began to sing, accompanying each verse with a final
+clucking which shook his chest and reddened his cheeks. Tonight,
+however, the Minstrel seemed to have more strength than usual; his eyes
+had an extraordinary brilliancy.
+
+An outburst of laughter greeted the first verses, hailing the sarcastic
+cleverness of the rural poet.
+
+Febrer did not understand much of it. When he heard this monotonous and
+neighing music, which seemed to recall the primitive songs scattered
+over the Mediterranean by the Semitic sailors, he took refuge within his
+thoughts to pass away the time, and to be less bored by the
+extraordinary length of the ballad.
+
+The loud laughter of the young men attracted his attention as something
+which he vaguely comprehended as directed against himself with hostile
+intent. What was that angry lamb saying? The singer's voice, his rustic
+pronunciation, and the continual clucking with which he ended the
+verses, were scarcely intelligible to Jaime, but he gradually began to
+realize that the ballad was directed at young women who desired to
+abandon the field, to marry caballeros, and who longed to wear the same
+ornaments as city ladies. The singer described feminine fashions in
+extravagant terms, which made the peasants laugh.
+
+The simple Pep also laughed at these jests, which flattered both his
+rural pride and his masculine vanity, which was inclined to see in the
+female nothing but a sharer of his burdens. "True! True!" And he joined
+his laughter to that of the boys. What an amusing fellow was that
+Minstrel!
+
+After a few verses the improvisatore no longer sang of young women in
+general, but of a particular one, ambitious and heartless. Febrer
+glanced instinctively at Margalida, who remained motionless, with
+lowered eyes, her cheeks colorless, as if frightened, not at what she
+had already heard, but at what was undoubtedly yet to come.
+
+Jaime began to stir uneasily in his chair. The idea of that rustic
+annoying her like that! A louder and more insolent outburst of laughter
+again attracted his attention to the verses. The singer was making fun
+of the girl, who, in order to become a lady, wished to marry a poor
+ruined man possessed of neither home nor family; a foreigner, who had no
+lands to cultivate.
+
+The effect of this was instantaneous. Pep, in the denseness of his dull
+brain, saw something like a spark of light, a luminous divination, and
+he extended his hands imperatively, while at the same instant he arose.
+
+"Enough! Enough!"
+
+But it was too late; a form interposed between himself and the candle
+light; it was Febrer, who had leaped forward.
+
+He grasped the drum from the singer's knees and hurled it at his head
+with such force that the parchment gave way and the frame fitted itself
+down over the bleeding forehead like a shapeless cap.
+
+The youths sprang impulsively from their seats, their hands reaching
+into their girdles. Margalida, screaming, took refuge at her mother's
+side, and the Little Chaplain felt that the time had come to draw his
+knife. His father, with the authority of his years, shouted:
+
+"Outside! Outside!"
+
+They all obeyed, and went out into the fields in front of the farmhouse.
+Febrer went also, in spite of the resistance of Pep.
+
+The young men seemed to be divided among themselves, and were carrying
+on a heated discussion. Some were protesting. The idea of striking the
+poor Minstrel, an unfortunate sick boy who could not defend himself!
+Others shook their heads. They had been expecting it. A man could not be
+insulted gratuitously without something happening. They had opposed the
+singing; they believed that when a man had something to say to another
+man he should say it face to face.
+
+In the heat of their contrary opinions and in their jealous rivalry they
+were about to resort to blows when their attention was distracted by the
+Minstrel. He had removed the drum from his head and was wiping the blood
+from his forehead, weeping with the fury of a weak man who longs to
+wreak direct vengeance, and yet realizes himself a slave to his
+impotence.
+
+"I'll settle with him!" he cried. Suddenly stooping to pick up stones in
+the darkness, he began to throw them at Febrer, each time receding a few
+steps as if to defend himself against a new aggression. The stones,
+flung by his forceless arms, fell into the shadows or rebounded against
+the porch.
+
+The Minstrel's friends surrounded him and led him away. His cries could
+be heard in the distance, shouting defiance, swearing vengeance. He
+would kill the stranger! He alone would put an end to the Majorcan!
+
+Jaime stood motionless among his enemies, with one hand in his belt. He
+was overcome with shame at having lost his temper, and having struck the
+poor consumptive. To stifle his remorse he muttered arrogant threats.
+He only wished it had been another man who had done the singing. His
+eyes sought the Ironworker, as if defying him; but the dreaded
+man-slayer had disappeared.
+
+Half an hour afterward, when the tumult had subsided and Febrer returned
+to his tower, he stopped on the way several times, revolver in hand, as
+if expecting someone.
+
+Nobody!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+LOVE AND PISTOLS
+
+
+The next morning just after sunrise the Little Chaplain ran in search of
+Don Jaime, revealing in his manner as he entered the tower, the
+importance of the news which he was bearing.
+
+In Can Mallorqui they had all passed a bad night. Margalida wept; her
+mother lamented the occurrence; what would the people of the district
+think of them when they heard that men had come to blows in her house as
+in a tavern? What would the girls say about her daughter? But Margalida
+gave little heed to the opinion of her friends. Something else seemed to
+worry her, something of which she said nothing, but which caused her to
+shed copious tears. Senor Pep, after closing the door on the suitors,
+had paced up and down the kitchen for an hour muttering to himself and
+clenching his fists. "That Don Jaime! Why should he persist in trying to
+obtain the impossible? Obstinate, like all his kindred!"
+
+The Little Chaplain had not slept either. In the mind of the young
+savage, astute and sagacious, a suspicion tad gradually assumed the
+reality of fact.
+
+On entering the tower he immediately communicated his thoughts to Don
+Jaime. Whom did he imagine had conceived the offensive song? The
+Minstrel? No, senor; it was the Ironworker! The Minstrel had made the
+rhymes, but the theme originated with the malicious man-slayer. He it
+was who had conceived the idea of insulting Don Jaime in the presence of
+all the suitors, relying on the certainty that he would not let the
+affront pass unheeded. Now the boy understood the reason for the
+interview between the two suitors which he had surprised in the
+mountain.
+
+Febrer received this news, to which the Little Chaplain attached great
+importance, with a gesture of indifference. What of that? He had already
+punished the insolent Minstrel, and as for the man-slayer, he had
+sneaked off when he had challenged him at the door of the farmhouse. He
+was a coward.
+
+Pepet shook his head incredulously.
+
+"Be careful, Don Jaime! You do not know the ways of the braves around
+here, the cunning they employ to avoid being caught when wreaking
+vengeance. You must be on your guard now more than ever. You know what
+the jail-bird is, and he doesn't want to get sent back to prison. What
+he has just done is a trick which other man-slayers have played before."
+
+Jaime lost patience at the boy's mysterious air and confused words.
+
+"Why don't you speak out? Come!"
+
+At last the Little Chaplain gave voice to his suspicions. Now the
+Ironworker could attempt anything he liked against Don Jaime; he could
+lie in ambush for him among the tamarisks at the foot of the tower and
+shoot him as he passed. Suspicion would at once be directed against the
+Minstrel, in view of the quarrel at the farmhouse and his threats of
+vengeance. With this, and with the man-slayer establishing an alibi by
+taking a short cut to some distant place where he could be seen by many
+persons, it would be easy for him to avenge himself with impunity.
+
+"Ah!" exclaimed Febrer seriously, as if suddenly realizing the
+importance of these words.
+
+The boy, delighting in his superior knowledge, continued giving advice.
+Don Jaime must be more careful; he must lock the door of his tower and
+pay no attention to calls from outside after dark. Surely the man-slayer
+would try to induce him to come out by challenging cries, with howls of
+defiance.
+
+"If you hear any cries of challenge during the night, Don Jaime, you
+must keep still. I know their ways," continued the Little Chaplain with
+the importance of a hardened man-slayer. "They hide in the bushes, with
+weapon aimed, and if their man comes out, they fire without ever showing
+themselves. You must stay in after dark."
+
+This advice was for the night. By day the senor could go abroad without
+fear.
+
+"Here am I to accompany you wherever you wish."
+
+The boy straightened himself with an aggressive air, moving one hand to
+his belt to convince himself that his knife had not disappeared, but he
+was immediately undeceived by Febrer's mocking expression of gratitude.
+
+"Laugh, Don Jaime; make fun of me if you will; but I can be of some use
+to you. See how I warn you of danger! You must be on your guard. The
+Ironworker planned that singing with evil intent."
+
+He glanced about like a chieftain preparing for a long siege. His eyes
+encountered the gun hanging on the wall among the decorations of shells.
+Very good; both barrels must be loaded with ball, and on top of this a
+good handful of lead slugs or coarse bird-shot. It would be no more than
+prudent. Thus his glorious grandfather had done. Seeing Jaime's revolver
+lying on the table, he frowned.
+
+"Very bad! Small arms should be worn on one's person at all hours. I
+sleep with my knife on my breast. What if an enemy should rush in
+suddenly without giving a man time to look for his weapon?"
+
+The tower, which, in former centuries, had been the scene of executions
+and battles between pirates, a stone vault suggestive of tragedies, the
+walls covered by gleaming whitewash, then claimed the boy's attention.
+
+He cautiously made his way to the door as if an enemy were lying in wait
+for him at the foot of the stairway, and concealing his body behind the
+thick wall, he advanced, nothing but an eye and part of his forehead
+being visible. Then he shook his head with despair. If one looked out at
+night, even with these precautions, the enemy, lying in ambush below,
+could see him, could aim at him with the greatest facility, resting his
+arms on a branch or on a stone with no fear of missing him. It would be
+even worse to step outside the door and venture to go down. No matter
+how dark the night, the enemy could point his gun at a cluster of
+leaves, at a star on the horizon, at anything standing out conspicuously
+in the dusk near the stairway, and when a dark form should pass before
+it, momentarily obscuring the object sighted at--bang! It was sure game!
+He had heard grave men tell of having spent whole months crouching
+behind a hillock or a tree trunk, the butt-end of a musket close to the
+cheek and the eyes fixed on the end of the barrel, from sunset till
+daybreak, lying in wait for some old-time enemy.
+
+No, the Little Chaplain did not like this door with its stairway in the
+open. He must find another exit, and he inspected the window, opened it,
+and looked out. With simian agility, laughing with joy at his discovery,
+he sprang over the embrasure and disappeared, seeking with feet and
+hands the irregularities of the rubble-work, the deep, stair-like
+sockets left by the stones when they had fallen loose from the mortar.
+Febrer looked out and saw him picking up his hat and waving it with a
+triumphant expression. Then the boy ran around the base of the tower,
+and soon his steps resounded, trotting noisily up the wooden stairs.
+
+"That's easy enough!" he shouted, as he entered the room, red with
+excitement over his discovery. "That's a stairway fit for a gentleman!"
+
+Realizing the importance of his discovery, he assumed a grand air of
+mystery. This must be kept between them--not a word to anyone. It was a
+precious means of exit, the secret of which must be jealously guarded.
+
+The Little Chaplain envied Don Jaime. How he longed to have an enemy
+himself to come and call a challenge to him in the tower during the
+night! While the Ironworker lay howling in ambush, his eyes glued upon
+the stairway, he would descend by means of the window, at the rear of
+the tower, and, creeping cautiously around, he would hunt the hunter.
+What a stroke! He laughed with savage glee, as if on his dark red lips
+trembled the ferocity of his glorious ancestors who considered the
+hunting of man the most noble of exercises.
+
+Febrer seemed to be infected by the boy's exhilaration. He would try
+going down by the window route himself! He flung his legs over the sill,
+and carefully, clumsily, began feeling with his toes for the
+irregularities in the wall until he found the holes which served as
+steps. He slowly made his way down, loose stones slipping beneath his
+feet, until he reached the ground, giving a sigh of satisfaction. Very
+good! The descent was easy; after a few more trials he would be able to
+get down as nimbly as the Little Chaplain. Pepet, who had followed him
+agilely, almost hanging over his head, smiled, like a master pleased at
+the lesson, and repeated his advice. Don Jaime must not forget! When he
+heard the challenge he must climb out of the window and down the wall,
+getting around behind his adversary.
+
+At noon when Febrer was left alone he felt himself possessed of a
+warlike ferocity, of an aggressiveness which caused him to look long at
+the wall on which hung his gun.
+
+At the foot of the promontory, from the shore where Tio Ventolera's boat
+was beached, rose the voice of the old fisherman singing mass. Febrer
+looked out the door, carrying both hands to his mouth in the form of a
+trumpet.
+
+Tio Ventolera, with the help of a boy, was shoving his boat into the
+water. The furled sail trembled aloft on the mast. Jaime did not accept
+the invitation. "Many thanks, Tio Ventolera!" The old fisherman insisted
+in his puny voice, which, wafted in on the wind, sounded like the
+plaintive crying of a child. The afternoon was fine; the wind had
+changed; they would catch fish in abundance near the Vedra. Febrer
+shrugged his shoulders. No, no, many thanks; he was busy.
+
+He had scarcely ceased speaking when the Little Chaplain presented
+himself at the tower for the second time, carrying the dinner. The boy
+seemed gloomy and sad. His father, choleric over the scene of the
+previous night, had chosen him as the victim on whom to vent his
+displeasure. An injustice, Don Jaime! Pep had been striding up and down
+the kitchen, while the women, with tearful eyes and cringing air, shrank
+away from his gaze. Everything that had happened he attributed to the
+weakness of his character, to his good nature, but he intended to apply
+a remedy at once. The courting was to be suspended; he would no longer
+receive suitors nor visits. And as for the Little Chaplain--this bad
+son, disobedient and rebellious, he was to blame for everything!
+
+Pep did not know for a certainty how the presence of his son had brought
+on the scandal of the night before, but he remembered his resistance
+against becoming a priest, his running away from the Seminary, and the
+recollection of these annoyances inflamed his anger and caused it to be
+concentrated on the boy. Monday next he was going to take him back to
+the seminary. If he tried to resist, and if he should run away again, it
+would be better for him to embark as a cabin boy and forget that he had
+a father, for in case he returned home Pep would break his two legs with
+the iron bar which fastened the door. To let off steam, to get his hand
+in, and to give a sample of his future temper, he gave him a few blows
+and kicks, getting even in this way for the wrath he had felt when he
+saw the boy appear as a fugitive from Iviza.
+
+The Little Chaplain, submissive and shrinking through habit, took refuge
+in a corner behind the defense of skirts and petticoats which his
+weeping mother opposed to Pep's fury; but now, up in the tower,
+recalling the event with glaring eyes, livid cheeks and clenched fists,
+he gnashed his teeth.
+
+What injustice! Should a man stand being beaten like that, for no reason
+whatever except that his father might work off his ill humor! The idea
+of his having to take a beating, he who carried a knife in his belt, and
+was not afraid of anyone on the island. Paternity and filial respect
+seemed to the Little Chaplain at the moment the inventions of cowards,
+created only to crush and mortify brave-hearted men. Added to the
+blows, humiliating to his dignity as a man of mettle, the thought of
+being shut up in the Seminary, dressed in a black cassock, like a woman
+in petticoats, with shaven head, losing forever those curls which peeped
+arrogantly beneath his hat brim; having a tonsure which would make the
+girls laugh, and--farewell to dancing and courting! Farewell to the
+knife!
+
+Soon Jaime would see him no more. Within a week the trip to Iviza was to
+be taken. Others would bring his dinner up to the tower. Febrer saw a
+ray of hope. Perhaps then Margalida would come as in former days! The
+Little Chaplain, in spite of his grief, smiled maliciously. No, not
+Margalida; anyone but her. Pep was in no mood to consent to that. When
+the poor mother, to plead her son's cause, had timidly suggested that
+the boy was needed in the house to wait on the senor, Pep burst forth
+into fresh raving. He would carry Don Jaime's meals up to the tower
+every day himself, or else his wife should do so, and if need be they
+would get a girl to act as servant for the senor since he was determined
+to live near them.
+
+The Little Chaplain said no more, but Febrer guessed the words which the
+good peasant had doubtless hurled against him, forgetting all respect in
+his anger, enraged over the trouble brought upon the family by his
+presence.
+
+The boy returned to the ranchhouse with his basket, muttering revenge,
+swearing that he would not return to the Seminary, although he knew no
+means of avoiding it. His resistance took the turn of knightly valor.
+Abandon his friend Don Jaime now that he was surrounded by dangers! Go
+and shut himself up in that house of gloom, among black-skirted
+gentlemen who spoke a strange language, now that out in the open, in
+the light of the sun, or in the mystery of night, men were going to
+kill one another! Should such extraordinary events occur, and he not
+witness them!
+
+When Febrer was left alone he took down his gun, and stood near the door
+for a long time examining it absent-mindedly. His thoughts were far
+away, much farther than the ends of the barrels, which seemed to point
+toward the mountain. That miserable Ironworker! That insufferable bully!
+Something had stirred within him, an irresistible antipathy, the first
+time he had seen him. Nobody in the island aroused his ire as did that
+gloomy jail-bird.
+
+The cold steel weapon in his hand brought him back to reality. He
+resolved to go into the mountains hunting. But what should he hunt? He
+extracted two cartridges from the barrels, cartridges loaded with small
+shot, suitable for the birds which crossed the island returning from
+Africa. He introduced two other cartridges into the double barrel and
+filled his pockets with more, which he took from a pouch. They were
+loaded with buckshot. He was going hunting for big game!
+
+Slinging his gun over his shoulder, he walked with arrogant step down
+the stairway of the tower building, as if his resolution filled him with
+satisfaction.
+
+As he passed Can Mallorqui the dog leaped out to meet him, barking
+joyously. No one peeped out of the door, as in the past. Surely he had
+been seen, but no one came out of the kitchen to greet him. The dog
+followed for some time, but turned back when he saw him take the road to
+the mountain.
+
+Febrer strode hurriedly between the stone walls which retained the
+sloping terraces, following the walks paved with blue pebbles, converted
+by the winter rains into high-banked ravines. Then he passed beyond the
+lands furrowed by the plow. The compact soil was covered with wild and
+spiny vegetation. Fruit trees, the tall almonds and the spreading fig
+trees, were succeeded by junipers and pines, twisted by the winds
+blowing from the sea. As Febrer stopped for a moment and looked behind,
+he saw at his feet the buildings of Can Mallorqui, like white dice
+shaken from the great rocks by the sea. The Pirate's Tower stood like a
+fortress on its hill. His ascent had been swift, almost at full speed,
+as if he feared to arrive too late at some meeting-place with which he
+was unfamiliar. He continued on his way. Two wild doves rose from the
+shrubbery with the feathery swish of an opening fan, but the hunter
+seemed not to see them. Stooping black figures in the bushes caused him
+to lift his right hand to the stock of his gun to sling it from his
+shoulder. They were charcoal burners piling wood. As Febrer passed near
+them they stared at him with fixed eyes, in which he thought he noticed
+something extraordinary, a mixture of astonishment and curiosity.
+
+"Good afternoon!"
+
+The grimy men replied, but they followed him a long time with their
+eyes, which shone with a transparency of water in their soot-blackened
+faces. Evidently the lonely mountain dwellers had heard of the events of
+the evening before at Can Mallorqui and were surprised at seeing the
+senor of the tower alone, as if defying his enemies and believing
+himself invulnerable.
+
+Now he no longer met people along his path. Suddenly, above the murmur
+of dry leaves caressed by the wind, he heard the faint ring of beaten
+iron. A slender column of smoke was rising from among the verdure. It
+was the blacksmith's forge.
+
+Jaime, with his gun half supported on his shoulder, as if the weapon
+were about to slip off, stepped into a clearing, which formed a broad
+square in front of the smithy. It was a miserable little adobe hut of a
+single story, blackened by smoke and covered by a hip roof, which, in
+places, sunk in as if about to collapse. Beneath a shed gleamed the
+flaming eye of a forge and near it stood the Ironworker beside the
+anvil, beating with his hammer on a bar of red-hot iron, which looked
+like the barrel of a carbine.
+
+Febrer was not displeased with his theatrical entrance into the open
+square. The man-slayer raised his eyes on hearing the sound of steps in
+the interval between two blows. He stood motionless, with raised hammer
+as he recognized the senor of the tower, but his cold eyes conveyed no
+impression.
+
+Jaime passed by the forge, staring at the Ironworker, giving a look of
+challenge which the other seemed not to understand. Not a word, not a
+greeting! The senor walked on, but once outside the square he stopped
+near one of the first trees and sat down on a projecting root, holding
+the gun between his knees.
+
+The pride of virile arrogance invaded the soul of Febrer. He was
+rejoiced at his own assurance. That bully could easily see that he had
+come to seek him in the solitude of the mountain, at his own house; he
+must be convinced that he was not afraid of him.
+
+To better demonstrate his serenity, he drew his tobacco box from his
+belt and began to roll a cigarette.
+
+The hammer had begun to ring upon the metal again. From his seat on the
+tree trunk Jaime saw the Ironworker, his back turned with careless
+confidence, as if ignorant of his presence and intent on nothing but his
+work. This calmness disconcerted Febrer somewhat. _Vive Dios!_ Had the
+man not guessed his intention?
+
+The Ironworker's coolness was exasperating, but at the same time his
+calmly turning his back, confident that the senor of the tower was
+incapable of taking advantage of this situation to fire a treacherous
+shot, inspired a vague gratitude.
+
+The hammer ceased ringing. When Febrer looked again in the direction of
+the shed he did not see the Ironworker. This caused him to pick up his
+gun, fingering the trigger. Undoubtedly he was coming with a weapon,
+annoyed by this provocation of one who came to seek him in his own
+house. Perhaps he was going to shoot out of one of the miserable windows
+which gave light to the blackened dwelling. He must be prepared against
+stratagem, and he arose, trying to conceal his body behind a tree trunk,
+leaving nothing but an eye visible.
+
+Someone was stirring inside the hut; something black cautiously peeped
+out. The enemy was coming forth. Attention! He grasped his gun,
+intending to fire as soon as the muzzle of the hostile weapon should
+appear, but he stood motionless and confused on seeing that it was a
+black skirt, terminated by naked feet in worn and tattered sandals, and
+above it a withered bust, bent and bony, a head coppery and wrinkled,
+with but one eye, and thin gray hair, which allowed the gloss of
+baldness to shine between its locks.
+
+Febrer recognized the old woman. She was the Ironworker's aunt, the
+one-eyed woman of whom the Little Chaplain had told him, the sole
+companion of the Ironworker in his wild solitude. The woman stood near
+the forge, her arms akimbo, thrusting forward her abdomen, bulky with
+petticoats, focusing her single eye, inflamed by anger, on the intruder
+who came to provoke a good man in the midst of his work. She stared at
+Jaime with the fiery aggressiveness of the woman who, secure in the
+respect produced by sex, is more audacious and impetuous than a man. She
+muttered threats and insults which the senor could not hear, furious
+that anyone would venture to oppose her nephew, the beloved whelp on
+whom, in her sterility, she had lavished all the ardor of frustrated
+motherhood.
+
+Jaime suddenly realized the odiousness of his behavior in coming to
+antagonize another in his own house in broad daylight. The old woman was
+right in insulting him. It was not the Ironworker who was the bully; it
+was himself, the senor of the tower, the descendant of so many
+illustrious dons, he, so proud of his origin.
+
+Shame intimidated him, overcoming him with stupid confusion. He did not
+know how to get away, nor which way to escape. At last he flung his gun
+across his shoulder, and, gazing aloft, as if pursuing a bird which
+sprang from branch to branch, wandered among the trees and through
+thickets, avoiding the forge.
+
+He walked down toward the valley, escaping from the forest to which a
+homicidal impulse had drawn him, ashamed of his former purpose. Again he
+passed the grimy men making charcoal.
+
+"Good afternoon!"
+
+They replied to his greeting, but in their eyes which shone peculiarly
+white in their blackened faces, Febrer felt something like hostile
+mockery of objectionable strangeness, as if he were of a different race
+and had committed an unheard of deed which forever placed him beyond
+friendly contact with the islanders.
+
+Pines and junipers were left behind on the skirt of the mountain. Now he
+walked between terraces of ploughed ground. In some fields he saw
+peasants at work; on a sloping bank he met several girls stooping over
+the ground gathering herbs; coming along a path he met three old men
+traveling slowly beside their burros.
+
+Febrer, with the humility of one who feels repentant for an evil deed,
+greeted them pleasantly.
+
+"Good afternoon!"
+
+The peasants who were working in the field responded to him with a low
+grunt; the girls turned away their faces with a gesture of annoyance so
+as not to see him; the three old men replied to his greeting gloomily,
+looking at him with searching eyes, as if they found something
+extraordinary about him.
+
+Under a fig tree, a black umbrella of interlaced boughs, he saw a number
+of peasants listening intently to someone in the center of the group. As
+Febrer approached there was a movement among them. A man arose with
+angry impulse, but the others held him back, grasping his arms and
+trying to restrain him. Jaime recognized him by the white kerchief under
+his hat. It was the Minstrel. The robust peasants easily overpowered the
+sickly boy, but, although he could not get away, he vented his fury by
+shaking his fist in the direction of the roadway, while threats and
+insults gurgled from his mouth. No doubt he had been telling his friends
+of the events of the night before when Febrer appeared. The Minstrel
+shouted and threatened. He swore that he would kill the stranger; he
+promised to come to the Pirate's Tower some night and set it on fire and
+rend its owner into shreds.
+
+Bah! Jaime shrugged his shoulders with a scornful gesture and continued
+on his way, but he felt depressed and almost desperate on account of the
+atmosphere of repulsion and hostility, growing steadily more apparent
+round about him. What had he done? Where had he thrust himself? Was it
+possible that he had fallen so low as to fight with these islanders,
+he, a foreigner, and, moreover, a Majorcan?
+
+In his gloomy mood he thought that the entire island, together with all
+things inanimate, had joined in this mortal protest. When he passed
+houses they seemed to become depopulated, their inhabitants concealing
+themselves in order not to greet him; the dogs rushed into the road,
+barking furiously, as if they had never seen him before.
+
+The mountains seemed more austere and frowning on their bare, rocky
+crests; the forest more dark, more black; the trees of the valleys more
+barren and shriveled; the stones in the road rolled beneath his feet as
+if fleeing from his touch; the sky contained something repellant; even
+the air of the island would finally shrink away from his nostrils. In
+his desperation Febrer realized that he stood alone. Everyone was
+against him. Only Pep and his family were left to him, and even they
+would finally draw away under the necessity of living at peace with
+their neighbors.
+
+The foreigner did not intend to rebel against his fate. He was
+repentant, ashamed of his aggressiveness of the night before and of his
+recent excursion to the mountain. For him there was no room on the
+island. He was a foreigner, a stranger, who, by his presence, disturbed
+the traditional life of these people. Pep had taken him in with the
+respect of an old time retainer, and he paid for his hospitality by
+disturbing his house and the peace of his family. The people had
+received him with a somewhat glacial courtesy, but tranquil and
+immutable, as if he were a foreign gran senor, and he responded to this
+respect by striking the most unfortunate one among them, the one who, on
+account of his illness, was looked upon with a certain paternal
+benevolence by all the peasants in the district. Very well, scion of
+the Febrers! For some time he had wandered about like a mad man, talking
+nothing but nonsense. All this for what reason? On account of the absurd
+love for a girl who might be his daughter; for an almost senile caprice,
+for he, despite his relative youth, felt old and forlorn in the presence
+of Margalida and the rustic girls who fluttered about her. Ah, this
+atmosphere! This accursed atmosphere!
+
+In his days of prosperity, when he still dwelt in the palace in Palma,
+had Margalida been one of his mother's servants, no doubt he would have
+felt for her only the appetite inspired by the freshness of her youth,
+experiencing nothing which resembled love. Other women dominated him
+then with the seduction of their artifices and refinements, but here, in
+his loneliness, seeing Margalida surrounded by the brown and rural
+prettiness of her companions, beautiful as one of those white goddesses
+which inspire religious veneration among peoples of coppery skin, he
+felt the dementia of desire, and all his acts were absurd, as if he had
+completely lost his reason.
+
+He must leave; there was no place on the island for him. Perhaps his
+pessimism deceived him in rating so high the importance of the affection
+which had drawn him to Margalida. Then again perhaps it was not desire,
+but love, the first real love of his life; he was almost sure of it, but
+even if it were, he must forget and go. He must go at once!
+
+Why should he remain here? What hope held him? Margalida, as if overcome
+by surprise on learning of his love, avoided him, concealed herself, and
+did nothing but weep, yet tears were not an answer. Her father,
+influenced by a lingering sentiment of traditional veneration, tolerated
+in silence this caprice of the gran senor, but at any moment he might
+openly rebel against the man who had so disarranged his life. The
+island, which had accepted him courteously, seemed to rise up now
+against the foreigner who had come from afar to disturb their
+patriarchal isolation, their narrow existence, the pride of a people
+apart, with the same fierceness with which it had risen in former
+centuries against the Norman, the Arab, or the Berber, when disembarking
+on their shores.
+
+It was impossible to resist; he would go. His eyes lovingly beheld the
+enormous belt of sea lying between two hills, as if it were a blue
+curtain concealing a rent in the earth. This strip of sea was the saving
+path, the hope, the unknown, which opens to us its arms of mystery in
+the most difficult moments of existence. Perhaps he would return to
+Majorca, to lead the life of a respectable beggar beside the friends who
+still remembered him; perhaps he would pass on to the Peninsula and go
+to Madrid in search of employment; perhaps he would take passage for
+America. Anything was preferable to staying here. He was not afraid; he
+was not intimidated by the hostility of the island and its inhabitants;
+his keenest feeling was remorse, shame over the trouble he had caused.
+
+Instinctively his feet led him toward the sea, which was now his love
+and his hope. He avoided passing Can Mallorqui, and on reaching the
+shore he walked along the beach where the last palpitation of the waves
+was lost like a slender leaf of crystal among the tiny pebbles mixed
+with potsherds.
+
+At the foot of the promontory of the tower he climbed up the loose rocks
+and seated himself on the wave-worn and almost detached cliff. There he
+had sat lost in thought one stormy night, the same on which he had
+presented himself as suitor at the house of Margalida.
+
+The afternoon was calm. The sea had an extraordinary and deep
+transparency. The sandy bottoms were reflected like milky spots; the
+submarine reefs and their dark vegetation seemed to tremble with the
+movement of mysterious life. The white clouds floating on the horizon
+traced great shadows as they passed before the sun. One portion of the
+blue expanse was a glossy black, while beyond the floating mantle the
+luminous waters seemed to be seething with golden bubbles. Now and again
+the sun, concealed behind these curtains, flung beneath its border a
+visible strip of light, like a lantern ray, a long triangle of hoary
+splendor, resembling a Holland landscape.
+
+Nothing in this appearance of the sea reminded Febrer of that stormy
+night, and yet, from the association which forgotten ideas form in our
+minds with old places when we return to them, he began to think the same
+thoughts, only that now, in place of progressing, they passed in an
+inverse direction with a confusion of defeat.
+
+He laughed bitterly at his optimism then, at the confidence which had
+caused him to scorn all his ideas of the past. The dead command; their
+power and authority are indisputable. How had it been possible for him,
+impelled by the enthusiasm of love, to repudiate this tremendous and
+discouraging truth? Clearly do the dark tyrants of our lives make
+themselves felt with all the overwhelming weight of their power. What
+had he done that this corner of the earth, his ultimate refuge, should
+look upon him as an alien? The innumerable generations of men whose dust
+and whose souls were mingled with the soil of their native isle had left
+as a heritage to the present the hatred of the stranger, the fear and
+the repulsion of the foreigner with whom they had lived at war. He who
+came from other lands was received with a repellant isolation, decreed
+by those who no longer exist.
+
+When, scorning his old-time prejudices, he had thought to join his life
+with that of a native woman, the woman had shrunk away, mysterious,
+frightened at the idea, while her father, in the name of servile
+respect, opposed such an unheard of union. Febrer's idea was that of a
+mad man; the mingling of the rooster and the gull, the vagary of the
+extravagant friar which so amused the peasants. Thus had men willed in
+former times when they founded society and divided it into classes, and
+thus it must ever be. It is useless to rebel against the established
+order. The life of man is short, and it is not enough to contend with
+hundreds of thousands of lives before it and which spy upon it unseen,
+crushing it between material fabrications which are tokens of their
+passage over the earth, weighting it down with their thoughts, which
+fill the atmosphere, and are taken advantage of by all those who are
+born without will power to invent something new.
+
+The dead command, and it is useless for the living to refuse obedience.
+All rebellions to escape this servitude, to break the chain of
+centuries, all are lies! Febrer recalled the sacred wheel of the
+Hindoos, the Buddhist symbol which he had seen in Paris once when he
+attended an oriental religious ceremony in a museum. The wheel is the
+symbol of our lives. We think we advance because we move; we think we
+progress because we go forward, but when the wheel makes the complete
+turn we find ourselves in the same place. The life of humanity, history,
+are but an interminable "recommencement of things." Peoples are born,
+they grow, they progress; the cabin is converted into a castle and
+afterward into a mart; enormous cities of millions of men are formed;
+then catastrophes come, the wars for bread which people lack, the
+protests of the dispossessed, the great massacres; then the cities are
+depopulated and are laid waste. Weeds invade the proud monuments; the
+metropoli gradually sink into the earth and sleep beneath hills for
+centuries and centuries. The untamed forest covers the capital of remote
+epochs; the savage hunter stalks over ground where in other times
+conquering chieftains were received with the pomp of demigods; sheep
+graze and the shepherd blows his reed above ruins which were tribunes of
+dead laws; men group together again, and the cabin rises, the village,
+the castle, the mart, the great city, and the round is repeated over and
+over, with a difference of hundreds of centuries, as identical gestures,
+ideas, conceptions, are repeated in man succeeding man throughout the
+course of time. The wheel! The eternal recommencement of things! And all
+the creatures of the human flock though changing the sheep-fold, never
+change shepherds; the shepherds are ever the same, the dead, the first
+to think, whose primordial thought was like the handful of snow which
+rolls and rolls down the hill-slopes, growing larger, bearing along
+everything which clings to it in its descent!
+
+Men, proud of their material progress, of the mechanical toys invented
+for their well-being, imagine themselves free, superior to the past,
+emancipated from original servitude, yet all that they say has been said
+hundreds of centuries before in different words; their passions are the
+same; their thoughts, which they consider original, are scintillations
+and reflections of other remote thoughts; and all acts which were held
+to be good or bad are considered as such because they have been thus
+classified by the dead, the tyrannical dead, those whom man would have
+to kill again if he desired to be really free!
+
+Who would be courageous enough, to accomplish this great liberating act?
+What paladin would there be with sufficient strength to kill the monster
+which weighs upon humanity, as the enormous and overwhelming dragons of
+legend guarded useless treasures beneath their mighty forms?
+
+Febrer remained motionless on the rock for a long time, his elbows on
+his knees and his forehead in his hands, lost in thought, his eyes
+appearing hypnotized by the gentle rise and fall of the fluctuating
+waters.
+
+When he aroused himself from this meditation the afternoon was waning.
+He would fulfill his destiny! He could live only on the heights,
+although it might be as a proud mendicant. All descending paths he found
+barred. Farewell to happiness which might be found by retrocession to a
+natural and primitive life! Since the dead did not wish him to be a man,
+he would be a parasite.
+
+His eyes, wandering over the horizon, became fixed on the white clouds
+massed above the rim of the sea. When he was a little lad and Mammy
+Antonia used to accompany him in his walks along the beach at Soller,
+they had often amused themselves by indulging their imagination in
+giving form and name to the clouds which met or scattered in an
+incessant variety of shapes, seeing in them now a black monster with
+flaming jaws, now a virgin surrounded by blue rays.
+
+A group of clouds, dense and snowy as white fleece, attracted his
+attention. This luminous whiteness resembled the polished bones of a
+cranium. Loose tufts of dark vapor floated in the mist. Febrer's
+imagination pictured in it two frightful, black holes; a dark triangle
+like that which the wasted nose leaves in the skull of the dead; and
+below it an immense gash, tragic, identical with the mute grin of a
+mouth devoid of lips and teeth.
+
+It was Death, the great mistress, empress of the world, displaying
+herself to him in broad daylight in her white and dazzling majesty,
+defying the splendor of the sun, the blue of the sky, the luminous green
+of the sea. The reflection of the sinking orb imparted a spark of
+malignant life to the bony countenance of wafer-like pallor, to the
+gloom of her dark eye-sockets, to her terrifying grin. Yes, it was she!
+The mist clinging to the surface of the sea was as plaits and folds of a
+garment which concealed her enormous frame; and other clouds which
+floated higher formed the ample sleeve from which escaped vapors more
+subtle and vague, making a bony arm terminating in an index finger, dry
+and crooked, like that of a bird of prey, pointing out far, far away, a
+mysterious destiny.
+
+The vision disappeared with the rapid movement of the clouds,
+obliterating the hideous figure, assuming other capricious forms, but as
+it vanished from his sight Febrer did not awake from his hallucination.
+
+He accepted the command without rebellion; he would go! The dead
+command, and he was their helpless slave! The late afternoon light
+brought out objects in strange relief. Strong shadows seemed to
+palpitate with life, imparting animation and giving animal shapes to the
+rocks along the coast. In the distance a promontory resembled a lion
+crouching above the waves, glaring at Jaime with silent hostility. The
+rocks on a level with the water raised and lowered their black heads,
+crowned with green hair, like giant amphibia of a monstrous humanity. In
+the direction of Formentera he saw an immense dragon which slowly
+advanced across the horizon, with a long tail of clouds, to
+treacherously swallow the dying sun.
+
+When the red sphere, fleeing from this danger, sank into the waters,
+enlarged by a spasm of terror, the depressing gray of twilight aroused
+Febrer from his hallucination.
+
+He arose, picked up his gun, and started for the tower. He was mentally
+arranging the programme of his departure. He would not say a word to
+anyone. He would wait until some mail steamer from Majorca should touch
+at the port of Iviza, and only at the last moment would he tell Pep of
+his resolution.
+
+The certainty of soon forsaking this retreat caused him to look with
+interest around the tower by the glow of a candle he had lighted. His
+shadow, gigantically enlarged, and vacillating in the flickering light,
+moved about on the white walls, eclipsing objects which decorated them,
+or glinting from the pearly shells or from the gleaming metal of the gun
+on its rack.
+
+A familiar grating sound attracted the attention of Febrer, who looked
+down the stairway. A man, wrapped in a mantle, stood on the lower steps.
+It was Pep.
+
+"Your supper," he said shortly, handing him a basket.
+
+Jaime took it. He saw that the peasant did not wish to talk, and he, for
+his part, felt a certain fear of breaking the silence.
+
+"Good-night!"
+
+Pep started on his return journey after this brief salutation, like a
+respectful but angry servant who only allows himself the indispensable
+words with his master.
+
+Jaime set the basket upon the table and closed the door. He had no
+appetite; he would eat his supper later. He caught up a rustic pipe,
+carved by a peasant from a branch of cherry, filled it with tobacco and
+began to smoke, following with distracted eyes the winding spirals,
+whose subtle blue assumed a rainbow transparency before the candle.
+
+Then he took a book and tried to fix his mind upon it, but he could not
+concentrate his attention.
+
+Outside this husk of stone night reigned, a night dark and filled with
+mystery. This solemn silence, which fell from on high, and in which the
+slightest sounds seemed to acquire terrifying proportions, as if the
+murmur were listening to its own self, appeared to filter through the
+very walls.
+
+Febrer thought he heard the circulation of his blood in this profound
+calm; from time to time he caught the scream of a gull, or the momentary
+swaying of the tamarisks in a gust of wind, a rustling like that of
+theatrical mobs concealed behind the wings. From the ceiling resounded
+at intervals the monotonous cric-cric of a wood-borer gnawing the beams
+with incessant toil which passed unheeded during the day. The sea filled
+the darkness with a gentle moan whose undulations broke on all the
+projections and windings of the coast.
+
+Suddenly, Febrer, who sat silently listening with a quiet resembling
+that of timid children who are afraid to turn over in bed in order not
+to augment the mystery which surrounds them, stirred in his chair.
+Something extraordinary rent the air, dominating with its stridor the
+confused sounds of night. It was a cry, a howl, a whinny, one of those
+hostile, mocking voices with which vengeful youths call one another in
+the shadows.
+
+Jaime felt an impulse to arise, to run to the door, but something held
+him motionless. The traditional cry of challenge had sounded some
+distance away. They must be young bloods of the district who had chosen
+the vicinity of the Pirate's Tower to meet, weapon in hand. That was
+not intended for him; in the morning the event would be explained.
+
+He opened his book again, intending to amuse himself by reading, but
+after a few lines he sprang from his chair, flinging the volume and his
+pipe upon the table.
+
+A-u-u-u-u! The whinny of challenge, the hostile and mocking cry, had
+resounded again, almost at the foot of the stairway, prolonged by the
+strong draft of a pair of bellows-like lungs. At the same instant the
+harsh noise of opening wings whistled in the dark; the marine birds,
+aroused from sleep, flew out from among the rocks to seek a new shelter.
+
+This call was meant for him! Someone had come to challenge him at his
+very door! He glanced at his gun; with his right hand he felt the steel
+of the revolver in his belt, warmed by contact with his body; he took
+two steps toward the door, but he stopped and shrugged his shoulders
+with a smile of resignation. He was no native of the island; he did not
+understand this language of yells, and he considered himself superior to
+such provocations.
+
+He returned to his chair and picked up his book, making an effort to
+smile.
+
+"Yell, my good fellow, shriek, howl! My sympathy is with you, you may
+catch cold in the night air while I am here in my house taking things
+easy!"
+
+This mocking complacency, however, was only on the surface. The howl
+rent the air again, not at the foot of the stairway now, but farther
+off, perhaps among the tamarisks which grew around the tower. The
+challenger seemed to have settled down to wait for Febrer to come out.
+
+Who could it be? Perhaps the miserable Ironworker--the man-slayer, whom
+he had been seeking that afternoon; perhaps the Minstrel, who had
+publicly sworn to kill him immediately. Night and cunning, which
+equalize the forces of enemies, might have given courage to the sick boy
+to appear against him. It was also possible that there might be two or
+more lying in wait for him.
+
+Another howl sounded, but Jaime shrugged his shoulders again. His
+unknown challenger might howl as long as he wished.
+
+Reading was now out of the question! It was useless to pretend
+tranquillity!
+
+The challenges were repeated fiercely now, like the crowing of an
+infuriated rooster. Jaime imagined the neck of the man, swollen,
+reddened, the tendons vibrating with anger. The guttural cry gradually
+acquired the inflection and the significance of language. It was ironic,
+mocking, insulting; it taunted the foreigner for his prudence; it seemed
+to call him a coward.
+
+He tried not to hear. A mist formed before his eyes; it seemed as if the
+candle had gone out; in the intervals of silence the blood hummed in his
+ears. He remembered that Can Mallorqui was not far away, and that
+perhaps Margalida stood trembling at her little window, listening to the
+cries near the tower, wherein was a timid man, hearing them also, but
+with barred door, as if he were deaf.
+
+No; it was enough! This time he flung his book definitively upon the
+table, and then, as by instinct, scarcely knowing what he did, he blew
+out the candle. He took a few steps, with hands outstretched, completely
+forgetting the plans of attack he had hastily conceived a few moments
+before. Anger transformed his ideas. In this sudden blindness of spirit
+he had but one thought, like a final splutter from a vanishing light.
+Now he touched the gun with palpitating hands, but he did not pick it
+up. He must have a less embarrassing weapon; perhaps he would need to go
+down and make his way through the bushes.
+
+He tugged at his belt, and his revolver slipped out of its hiding place
+with the ease of a warm and silky animal. He groped in the dark toward
+the door and cautiously opened it, barely wide enough to get his head
+through, the heavy hinges creaking faintly.
+
+Emerging suddenly from the darkness of his room to the diffused clarity
+of the sidereal light, he saw the clump of bushes near the tower, and
+farther on, the dim white farmhouse, and opposite stood the black hump
+of the mountains piercing the sky, in which flickered the stars. This
+vision lasted but an instant; he could see no more. Suddenly two tiny
+flashes, two serpents; of fire leaped from the bushes, one after the
+other, cutting luminous streaks through the dark, followed by two almost
+simultaneous reports.
+
+Jaime perceived an acrid odor of burnt powder. At the same time he felt
+just above his scalp a numbing, violent shock, something abnormal, which
+seemed to touch him, and yet not touch him, the sensation of a blow from
+a stone. Something dropped upon his face like a light, impalpable
+shower. Blood? Earth?
+
+The surprise lasted only an instant. Someone behind the bushes close to
+the stairway had fired at him. The enemy was there--there! In the
+darkness he saw the point from which the flashes had emerged, and,
+reaching his right arm outside the door, he fired, one, two, five times;
+all the cartridges contained in the cylinder.
+
+He fired almost blindly, uncertain of his aim in the dark, and trembling
+with anger. A faint sound of crashing branches, an almost imperceptible
+undulation in the bushes, filled him with savage joy. He had hit the
+enemy undoubtedly, and he raised his hand to his head to convince
+himself that he was not wounded.
+
+As he passed his fingers over his face something small and granulated
+fell from his cheeks. It was not blood; it was sand, dust, and mortar.
+He felt along the wall just above his head and discovered two small,
+funnel-like holes, still warm. The two balls had grazed his scalp, and
+had lodged in the wall, an almost imperceptible distance above his head.
+
+Febrer was rejoiced at his good luck. He, safe, unharmed; but his enemy,
+how about him? Where was he at that moment? Ought he to go down and
+search among the tamarisks for him, to taunt him in his agony? Suddenly
+the shout was repeated, the savage howl, far, very far away, somewhere
+near the farmhouse; a howl triumphant, mocking, which Jaime interpreted
+as an announcement of an early return.
+
+The dog of Can Mallorqui, aroused by the gunshots, was barking dismally.
+Other dogs in the distance answered. The howling of the man moved
+farther away, with incessant repetitions, steadily growing more remote,
+more faint, merging into the mysterious night.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+THE CHALLENGE IN THE NIGHT
+
+
+No sooner had day dawned than the Little Chaplain appeared at the tower.
+
+He had heard everything. His father, who was a heavy sleeper, had
+perhaps not yet been informed of the event. The dog might bark, and a
+fierce battle might rage near the farmhouse, but good old Pep, when he
+went to bed, tired out with his day's work, became as insensible as a
+dead man. The other members of the family had spent a night of anguish.
+His mother, after several attempts to arouse her husband, with no better
+success than to draw forth incoherent mumbling, followed by yet louder
+snoring, had spent the night praying for the soul of the senor of the
+tower, believing him dead. Margalida, who slept near her brother, had
+called him in a stifled and agonized voice when the first shots rang
+out: "Do you hear, Pepet?"
+
+The poor girl had arisen and lighted the candle, by the dim radiance of
+which the boy had seen her pale face and terrified eyes. Forgetting
+everything, she had flung her arms about, lifting her hands to her head.
+"They have killed Don Jaime! My heart tells me that they have!" She
+trembled at the echo of the fresh shots. "A regular rosary of reports,"
+according to the Little Chaplain, had answered the first discharges.
+
+"That was you, wasn't it, Don Jaime?" continued the boy. "I recognized
+your pistol at once, and so I said to Margalida. I remember that
+afternoon you shot off your revolver on the beach. I have a good ear for
+such things."
+
+Then he told of his sister's despair; how she had gathered her clothing,
+intending to dress so that she might rush to the tower. Pepet would
+accompany her. Then, suddenly becoming timid, she refused to go. She did
+nothing but weep, and she would not allow the boy to make his escape by
+climbing over the barnyard fence.
+
+They had heard the howling near the farmhouse, some time after the
+shooting, and, as he spoke of this war-cry, the boy smiled
+mischievously. Then Margalida, suddenly tranquilized by her brother's
+words, had become silent, but during the whole night the Little Chaplain
+heard sighs of anguish and a gentle whispering as of a low voice
+murmuring words and words with tireless monotony. She was praying.
+
+Then, when daylight came, everyone arose except his father, who
+continued his placid sleep. As the women timidly peeped out from the
+porch, full of gloomy thoughts, they expected to behold a terrifying
+picture--the tower in ruins, and the Majorcan's corpse lying above the
+wreck. But the Little Chaplain had laughed on seeing the door open, and
+near it, as on other mornings, Don Jaime, with naked chest, splashing in
+a tank which he himself brought from the beach filled with sea water.
+
+He had not been mistaken when he laughed at the women's terror. No one
+living could kill his Don Jaime--that was what he said, and he knew
+something of men.
+
+Then, after Jaime's brief account of the events of the night before,
+screwing up his eyes with the expression of a very wise person, Pepet
+examined the two holes made in the wall by the bullets.
+
+"And your head was here, where mine is? Futro!"
+
+His eyes reflected admiration, devout idolatry, for this wonderful man,
+whose life had just been saved by a veritable miracle.
+
+Trusting in his knowledge of the people of the country, Febrer
+questioned the boy about the supposed aggressor, and the Little Chaplain
+smiled with an air of importance. He had heard the war-cry. It was the
+Minstrel's manner of howling; many might have imagined it was he. He
+howled that way at the serenades, at the afternoon dances, and on coming
+away from a wooing.
+
+"But it was not he, Don Jaime; I am sure! If anyone should ask the
+Minstrel he would be free to say 'Yes,' just to give himself importance.
+But it was the other, the Ironworker; I recognized his voice, and so did
+Margalida!"
+
+In continuation, with a grave expression, as if he wished to test the
+Majorcan's mettle, he spoke of the silly fear of the women, who declared
+that the Civil Guard of San Jose must be notified.
+
+"You won't do that, will you, Don Jaime? That would be foolish. The
+police are only needed by cowards."
+
+The deprecatory smile, and the shrug of the shoulders with which Febrer
+answered him, reassured the boy.
+
+"I was certain of that; it's not the custom on the island--but, as you
+are a foreigner--you are right; every man should defend himself; that's
+what he's a man for; and in case of need, he counts on his friends."
+
+As he said this, he strutted about, as if to call attention to the
+powerful aid on which Don Jaime might count in moments of danger.
+
+The Little Chaplain wished to work this situation to his own advantage,
+and he advised the senor that it would be a good idea to have him come
+and live in the tower. If Don Jaime were to ask Senor Pep, it would be
+impossible for his father to refuse. It would be well for Don Jaime to
+have him near; then there would be two for the defense; and, to
+strengthen his petition, he recalled his father's anger and the
+certainty that he intended to take him to Iviza at the beginning of next
+week, to shut him up in the Seminary. What would the senor do when he
+found himself deprived of his best friend?
+
+In his desire to demonstrate the value of his presence, he censured
+Febrer's forgetfulness of the night before. Who would think of opening
+the door and looking out when someone was there with weapon prepared,
+challenging him? It was a miracle that he had not been killed. What
+about the lesson he had given him? Did he not remember his advice about
+climbing down from the window, at the back of the tower, to surprise the
+enemy?
+
+"That is true," said Jaime, really ashamed at his forgetfulness.
+
+The Little Chaplain, who was proudly enjoying the effect of this advice,
+started with surprise as he looked through the doorway.
+
+"My father!"
+
+Pep was slowly climbing the hill, his arms clasped behind his back,
+seemingly in deep meditation. The boy became alarmed at the sight of
+him. Undoubtedly he was very cross over the latest news; it would not be
+well for them to meet just now, and repeating once again the
+advisability of Febrer's having him as a companion, he flung his legs
+out of the window, turning upon his belly, resting a second on the sill,
+and disappeared down the side of the wall.
+
+The peasant entered the tower and spoke without emotion of the
+happenings of the night before, as if this were a normal event which but
+slightly altered the monotony of country life. The women had told
+him--he was such a heavy sleeper----. So it had not amounted to
+anything?
+
+He listened, with lowered eyes, twiddling his thumbs, to the brief tale.
+Then he went to the door to examine the two bullet holes.
+
+"A miracle, Don Jaime, a genuine miracle."
+
+He returned to his chair, remaining motionless a long time, as if it
+cost him a great effort to make his dull mind operate.
+
+"The devil has broken loose, senor. It was sure to happen; I told you
+so. When a man makes up his mind to have the impossible, everything goes
+wrong, and there's an end to peace."
+
+Then, raising his head, he fixed his cold, scrutinizing eyes on Don
+Jaime. They would have to notify the alcalde; they must tell the whole
+business to the Civil Guard.
+
+Febrer made a negative gesture. No, this was an affair between men,
+which he would handle himself.
+
+Pep sat with his eyes fixed enigmatically on the senor, as if struggling
+with opposing ideas.
+
+"You are right," said the phlegmatic peasant.
+
+Foreigners usually had other notions, but he was glad that the senor
+said the same as would his poor father (may he rest in peace!). Everyone
+on the island thought the same; the old way was the best way.
+
+Then Pep, without consulting the senor, exposed his plan for helping in
+the defense. It was a duty of friendship. He had his gun at home. He had
+not used it for some time, but when he was young, during the lifetime of
+his famous father (may he rest in peace!) he had been a fair shot. He
+would come and spend the nights in the tower, to keep Don Jaime company,
+so that he should not be taken unaware.
+
+Neither was the peasant surprised at the firm negative of the senor, who
+seemed to be offended by the proposition. He was a man, not a boy,
+needing companionship. Let everyone sleep in his own house, and let
+happen what fate decreed!
+
+Pep assented also with nods of his head to these words. The same would
+his father have said, and like him all good people who followed ancient
+customs. Febrer seemed a true son of the island. Then, softened by the
+admiration this courage of Don Jaime's inspired in him, he proposed
+another arrangement. Since the senor did not wish company in his tower,
+he might come down to Can Mallorqui to sleep. They could fix him up a
+bed somewhere.
+
+Febrer felt tempted by the opportunity to see Margalida, but the tone of
+weakness in which the father gave the invitation, and the anxious glance
+with which he awaited a reply, caused him to refuse.
+
+"No, thank you very much, Pep. I will stay here in the tower. They might
+think I had moved down to your house because I was afraid."
+
+The peasant nodded assent. He understood. He would do the same in a like
+situation. But Pep would try to sleep less at night, and if he heard
+shouts or shots near the tower he would come out with his old fire-lock.
+
+As if this self-imposed obligation of sleeping on guard, ready to
+expose his skin in defense of his old-time patron broke the calm in
+which he had maintained himself until then, the peasant raised his eyes
+and clasped his hands.
+
+"Oh, Lord! Oh, Lord!
+
+"The devil is let loose!" he repeated, "there will be no more peace; and
+all for not believing what I told you, for going against the current of
+old customs, which have been established by wiser people than those of
+the present day. And what is all this leading to?"
+
+Febrer tried to reassure the peasant, and a thought escaped him which he
+had intended to keep concealed. Pep might rejoice. He was going to leave
+forever, not wishing to disturb the peace of himself and family.
+
+Ah! was the senor really going away? The peasant's joy was so keen, and
+his surprise so lively that Jaime hesitated. He seemed to see in the
+peasant's little eyes a certain malice. Did the islander imagine that
+his sudden determination was caused by fear of his enemies?
+
+"I am going," he said, looking at Pep with hostility, "but I am not sure
+when. Later--when it suits my convenience. I can't leave here until the
+man who is looking for me finds me."
+
+Pep made a gesture of resignation; his gladness vanished, but he was
+about to assent to these words also, adding that thus would his father
+have done, and thus he himself thought best.
+
+When the peasant arose to take his leave, Febrer, who was standing near
+the door, saw the Little Chaplain by the farmhouse, and this recalled
+the boy's desire to his mind. If the request would not put Pep out, he
+might let the youngster keep him company in the tower.
+
+But the father received this suggestion with displeasure.
+
+No, Don Jaime! If he needed company, here he was himself, a man! The
+boy must study. The devil was let loose, and it was high time to impose
+his authority so that order should be maintained in the family. Next
+week he intended taking him back to the Seminary. That was final.
+
+On being left alone Febrer went down to the beach. Uncle Ventolera was
+caulking the seams of his beached boat with tow and pitch. Lying in it
+as if it were an enormous coffin, with his weak eyes he sought out the
+leaks, and on finding one he would begin singing his Latin jargon in a
+loud voice.
+
+Feeling the boat move and seeing the senor leaning over the edge, the
+old man smiled with amusement, and ended his canticles.
+
+"Holloa, Don Jaime!"
+
+Uncle Ventolera was informed of everything. The women of Can Mallorqui
+had told him the news, and by this time it had circulated all over the
+district, but only from ear to ear, as these things must be spoken in
+order to keep them from the police who muddle everything. So someone had
+come after him the night before, challenging him to step outside the
+tower? He, he, he! The same thing had happened to him in times gone by,
+when, between voyages, he was making love to the girl he married. A
+certain comrade who had become a rival had howled at him; but he had
+gotten the girl, because he was the more clever; to sum it all up, he
+had given his friend a stab in the breast, which held him for a long
+time between life and death. Then he had lived on his guard whenever he
+was in port, to avoid the vengeance of his enemy; but the years pass,
+old grudges are forgotten, and finally the two comrades took up the
+smuggling trade together, sailing from Algiers to Iviza, or along the
+Spanish main.
+
+Uncle Ventolera laughed with a childish giggle, enjoying these
+recollections of his youth, recalling the memory of shooting scrapes,
+stabbing affrays, and provocations in the night. Alas! No one challenged
+him any more! This was only for young bloods. His accent betrayed
+melancholy at being no longer mixed up in these affairs of love and war,
+which he judged indispensable to a happy existence.
+
+Febrer left the old man singing mass as he went on with his task of
+repairing the boat. In the tower he found the basket containing his
+supper upon the table. The Little Chaplain had left it without waiting,
+obeying, no doubt, some urgent call of the ill-humored father. After
+eating, Jaime went out again to examine the two holes which the
+projectiles had made in the wall. Now that the excitement of the danger
+was over, and he coldly appreciated the gravity of the situation, he
+felt a vengeful anger, more intense than that which had impelled him to
+rush to the door the night before. Had his enemy aimed a few millimeters
+lower, he would have rolled into obscurity, at the foot of the steps,
+like a hunted beast. Cristo! And could a man of his class die thus, the
+victim of treachery, ambushed by one of these rustics!
+
+His anger assumed a vengeful impulse; he felt the necessity of taking
+the offensive, of making his appearance, serene and threatening, in the
+presence of the men among whom were numbered some of his adversaries.
+
+He took down his gun, examined the action, slung it over his shoulder
+and descended from the tower, taking the same road as on the previous
+afternoon. As he passed Can Mallorqui the barking of the dog brought
+Margalida and her mother to the door. The men were in a distant field
+which Pep was cultivating. The mother, tearful, and with her words
+broken by sobs, could only grasp the senor's hands.
+
+"Don Jaime! Don Jaime!"
+
+He must be very careful, he must stay close in his tower, and be
+constantly on guard against his enemies. Margalida, silent, her eyes
+extraordinarily wide open, gazed at Febrer, revealing admiration and
+anxiety. She did not know what to say; her simple soul seemed to shrink
+humbly within itself, finding no words to express her thoughts.
+
+Jaime continued on his way. Several times he turned and saw Margalida
+standing on the porch, looking after him anxiously. The senor was going
+hunting, as he had done before, but, ay! he was taking the mountain
+trail; he was going to the pine forest where stood the forge.
+
+During his walk Febrer thought over plans of attack. He was determined
+to try conclusions at once. The moment that the man-slayer should appear
+at the door of his house, he would let him have the two shots from his
+gun. He, Jaime Febrer, carried on his business in the light of day, and
+he would be more fortunate; his balls would not lodge in the wall!
+
+When he arrived at the forge he found it closed. Nobody at home! The
+Ironworker had disappeared; neither was the old woman there to receive
+him with the hostile glare of her single eye.
+
+He seated himself at the foot of the tree as before, his gun ready,
+sheltered behind the trunk, in case this apparent desertion of the
+premises was only a trick. A long time passed. The wild doves,
+emboldened by the stillness of the surrounding forge, fluttered about in
+the little clearing unheeding the motionless hunter. A cat crept
+cautiously over the rickety roof, and crouched like a tiger, trying to
+capture the restless sparrows.
+
+Delay and inaction calmed Febrer. What was he doing here, far from home,
+in the heart of the forest, twilight about to fall, lying in wait for an
+enemy of whose active hostility he had only vague suspicions? Perhaps
+the Ironworker had locked himself in his house on seeing him approach,
+so that further waiting would be useless. It might be that he and the
+old woman had gone on some long excursion and might not return until
+night. He must go!
+
+Gun in hand, ready to attack in case he should meet the enemy, he began
+his return to the valley.
+
+Once more he passed the fields and again he met the peasants and the
+girls, who looked at him with eager curiosity, barely replying to his
+greeting. Again, in the same place as before, he met the Minstrel with
+his bandaged head, surrounded by friends to whom he was talking with
+violent gesticulations. When he recognized the senor of the tower,
+before his comrades could prevent him, he bent down to the hardened
+furrows of the earth and picked up two stones and flung them at him.
+These missiles, thrown by a forceless arm, did not make half their
+intended journey. Then, exasperated by the contemptuous serenity of
+Febrer, who continued on his way, the boy broke into threats. He would
+kill the Majorcan; he declared it at the top of his voice! Let them all
+hear that he had sworn to destroy this man!
+
+Jaime smiled gloomily. No; the angry lamb was not the one who had come
+to the Pirate's Tower to kill him. His outrageous boasting was enough to
+prove that.
+
+The senor spent a peaceful evening. After supper, when Margalida's
+brother had said good night, depressed by the certainty that his father
+would never desist from his determination of taking him back to the
+Seminary, Jaime closed the door, piling the table and chairs against
+it. He did not intend to be surprised while he was asleep. He blew out
+the light and sat smoking in the dark, amusing himself by watching the
+tiny brand on the end of his cigar widen and shrink as he drew upon it.
+His gun was near him and his revolver was in his belt ready for use at
+the slightest sound at the door. His ear was habituated to the murmurs
+of the night and to the surging of the sea, but he sought beyond them
+for some sound, some evidence that in this lonely retreat there were
+other human beings than himself.
+
+Finally he looked at the face of his watch by the light of his cigar.
+Ten o'clock! Far away he heard barking, and Jaime thought he recognized
+the dog of Can Mallorqui. Perhaps it indicated the passing of someone on
+his way to the tower. Now the enemy might be near. It was not unlikely
+that he was dragging himself cautiously outside the path among the
+tamarisks.
+
+He arose, reaching for his gun, feeling in his belt for his revolver. As
+soon as he should hear a cry of challenge, or a voice near the door, he
+would climb out of the window, make his way cautiously around the tower,
+and get behind the enemy.
+
+More time passed. Still nothing! Febrer wished to look at his watch, but
+his hands would not obey his will. The ruddy point no longer glowed on
+the end of his cigar. His head had at last fallen back upon the pillow;
+his eyes closed; he heard cries of challenge, shots, curses, but it was
+in his dreams, as if in another world, where insults and attacks do not
+arouse one's sensibilities. Then--nothing! A dense shadow, a night of
+profound sleep. He was awakened by a ray of sunshine which filtered
+through a crack in the window and shone upon his eyes. The morning light
+again brought into relief the whiteness of the walls which during the
+night seemed to sweat the shadows and barbaric mysteries of former
+centuries.
+
+Jaime arose in good spirits, and as he removed the barricade of
+furniture which obstructed the doorway, he laughed, somewhat ashamed of
+his precautions, considering them almost a sign of cowardice. The women
+of Can Mallorqui had worked upon his nerves with their fears. Who would
+be likely to seek him in his tower, knowing that he was on the alert and
+would meet a trespasser with shots! The Ironworker's absence when Jaime
+had presented himself at the forge, and the calm of the night before,
+gave food for thought. Was the man-slayer wounded? Had some of Jaime's
+balls reached their mark?
+
+He spent the morning on the sea. Tio Ventolera took him to the Vedra,
+praising the lightness and other merits of his boat. He repaired it year
+after year, not a splinter of its original construction being left in
+it. They fished in the shelter of the rocks until mid-afternoon. On
+their way back Febrer saw the Little Chaplain running along the beach
+waving something white.
+
+Before landing, while the prow of the boat was scraping along the
+gravel, the boy called to him with the impatience of one who has great
+news:
+
+"A letter, Don Jaime!"
+
+A letter! Actually, in that remote corner of the world, the most
+extraordinary event that could disturb the everyday life was the arrival
+of a letter. Febrer turned it over in his hands, examining it as
+something strange and rare. He looked at the seal, then at the address
+on the envelope.... He recognized it--it aroused in his memory the same
+impression as a familiar face with which we cannot associate a name.
+From whom was it?
+
+Meanwhile the Little Chaplain gave detailed explanations of the great
+event. The letter had been brought by the foot postman in the middle of
+the morning. It had come by the mail steamer from Palma, arriving in
+Iviza the night before. If he wished to answer it he must do so without
+loss of time. The boat would return to Majorca the following day.
+
+On his way to the tower Jaime broke the seal and looked for the
+signature. Almost at the same moment his recollection grew clear and a
+name surged to his mind--Pablo Valls! Captain Pablo had written to him
+after a year of silence, and his letter was long, several sheets of
+commercial paper covered with close writing!
+
+At the first few lines the Majorcan smiled. The captain himself seemed
+there in those written words, with his vigorous and exuberant
+personality, turbulent, kindly, and aggressive. Febrer almost saw in the
+page before him his enormous, heavy nose, his gray whiskers, his eyes
+the color of oil speckled with flecks of tobacco color, his dented,
+chambergo hat thrust on the back of his head.
+
+The letter began, "Dear, shameless, fellow;" and the opening paragraphs
+continued in the same style.
+
+"Something worth while," he murmured, smiling. "I must read this
+leisurely."
+
+He put it in his pocket with the eagerness of one who sharpens a
+pleasure by deferring it. Jaime climbed to the tower, after taking leave
+of the boy.
+
+He seated himself near the window, his chair tilted back against the
+table, and began to read. An explosion of mock fury, of affectionate
+insults, of indignation over events Jaime had actually forgotten, filled
+the first pages. Pablo Valls overflowed with amusing incoherency, like a
+charlatan condemned for a long time to silence who suffers the torture
+of his repressed verbosity. He flung into Febrer's face his origin and
+his pride, which had impelled him to run away without telling his
+friends good-bye. "In the last analysis you are descended from a race of
+inquisitors." His ancestors had burned the ancestors of Valls; let him
+not forget that! But the good must distinguish themselves from the bad
+in some way, and so he, the reprobate, the Chueta, the heretic hated by
+everybody, had responded to this lack of friendship by busying himself
+with Jaime's affairs. Very likely he had already heard about this
+through his friend Toni Clapes, whose business was thriving, as usual,
+although he had suffered some set-backs of late. Two of his vessels
+carrying cargoes of tobacco had been captured.
+
+"But--to the gist of the matter! You know that I'm a practical man, a
+regular Englishman, an enemy to the wasting of time."
+
+And the practical man, the "Englishman," in order to waste no words,
+covered two pages more with the explosions of his indignation at
+everything around him; at his racial brothers, timid and humble, who
+covered the hand of the enemy with kisses; at the descendants of the
+old-time persecutors; at the ferocious Padre Garau, of whom not even
+dust remained; against the whole island, the famous Roqueta, to which
+his people were held in subjection through love for its soil, a love
+returned with ostracism and insults.
+
+"But let us not waste words; order, method, and clarity! Above all let
+us write practically. Lack of practical character is our ruination."
+
+Finally he came to the Popess Juana, that imposing senora, whom Pablo
+Valls had only seen at a distance, as he seemed to her the
+personification of all the revolutionary impieties and of all the sins
+of his race. "There is no hope for you in that direction." Febrer's
+aunt remembered him only to lament his bad end and to praise the justice
+of the Lord, who punishes those who travel crooked paths, and depart
+from sacred family traditions. Sometimes the good lady thought him in
+Iviza; again she declared she knew for a certainty that her nephew had
+been seen in America, engaged in the meanest employments. "Anyway, whelp
+of an inquisitor, your pious aunt will not remember you, and you need
+not expect the slightest assistance from her." It was now being
+whispered about the city that, definitely renouncing the pomps of this
+world and perhaps even the pontifical Golden Rose, which never arrived,
+she was about to turn over all her property to the priests of her court,
+going to shut herself up in a convent, with all the advantages of a
+privileged lady. The Popess was going away forever; it was impossible to
+expect anything from her. "And here is where I come in, young Garau: I,
+the reprobate, the Chueta, the long-tailed, who desire to be reverenced
+and adored by you as if you were Providence himself."
+
+Finally the practical man, the enemy of useless words, fulfilled his
+promise, and the style of the letter became concise, with a commercial
+dryness. First a long statement of the properties still possessed by
+Jaime at the time of his leaving Majorca, burdened with all manner of
+incumbrances and mortgages; then a list of his creditors, which was
+longer than that of his properties, followed by lists of interest due
+and other obligations, an entangled skein in which Febrer's mind became
+wholly confused, but through which Valls made direct headway, with the
+confidence of those of his race for disentangling jumbled business
+affairs.
+
+Captain Pablo had allowed half a year to pass without writing to his
+friend, but he had occupied himself daily over his affairs. He had
+haggled with the most ferocious usurers of the island, insulting some,
+outwitting others in finesse, resorting to persuasion or to bravado,
+advancing money to satisfy the more urgent creditors, who threatened
+attachment. In conclusion, he had left his friend's fortune free and
+sound, but it emerged from the terrible battle shrunken and
+comparatively insignificant. There only remained to Febrer some
+thousands of duros; perhaps it would not amount to fifteen thousand, but
+this was better than to live in his former position as a gran senor
+without anything to eat, and subjected to the persecution of his
+creditors. "It is time that you come home! What are you doing there? Are
+you going to spend the rest of your life like a Robinson Crusoe, in that
+pirate's tower?" He could live modestly; living is cheap in Majorca.
+Besides, he could solicit an office from the Government. With his name
+and pedigree it would not be difficult to accomplish that. He might
+devote himself to commerce under the direction and advice of a man like
+himself. If he wished to travel it would not be difficult for Valls to
+secure him a position in Algiers, in England, or in America. The captain
+had friends everywhere. "Come back soon, young Garau, dear old
+inquisitor. I have no more to say."
+
+Febrer spent the rest of the afternoon reading the letter or strolling
+about the environs of the tower, deeply stirred by this news.
+Recollections of his past existence, dimmed by his rural and solitary
+life, stood out now with the same vividness as if they were the events
+of yesterday. The cafes on the Borne, his friends in the Casino! How
+strange to return there, passing at a bound into city life after his
+half savage seclusion in the tower! He would go at once! His mind was
+made up! He would start the next morning, taking advantage of the
+return trip of the same steamer which had brought the letter.
+
+The memory of Margalida rose in his mind as if to detain him on the
+island. She appeared in his imagination with her white face, her
+adorable figure, her timid and lowered eyes, which seemed to conceal the
+dark ardor of her pupils as if it were a sin. Should he leave her? Never
+see her again? Then she would become the wife of one of those rough
+peasants who would make no better use of her beauty than to waste it in
+daily tasks in the field, gradually converting her into a farm animal,
+black, calloused, and wrinkled!
+
+A pessimistic thought soon aroused him from this cruel doubt. Margalida
+did not love him; she could not love him. Disconcerting silence and
+mysterious tears were the only response he had succeeded in eliciting by
+his declarations of love. Why should he persist in trying to conquer
+that which seemed to everybody to be impossible? Why continue the
+senseless struggle against the whole island for a woman he was not as
+yet sure loved him?
+
+The joy of the recent news turned Febrer into a skeptic. "Nobody dies of
+love." Yet it would cost him a great effort to abandon this country on
+the morrow; he would experience profound sorrow when the African
+whiteness of Can Mallorqui should fade from his view, but, once he had
+shaken himself free of the atmosphere of the island, no longer living
+among rustics, and had gone back to his old life, perhaps Margalida
+would linger only as a vague memory, and he would be the first to laugh
+at this passion for a peasant girl, the daughter of a former retainer of
+his family.
+
+He hesitated no longer. He would spend the night in the solitude of his
+tower, like a primitive man, one of those who live lying in ambush
+against danger, ready to kill. Tomorrow night he would be seated at a
+table in a cafe beneath the light of an electric chandelier, seeing
+carriages beside the pavements, and gazing at women more beautiful than
+Margalida strolling along the Paseo del Borne. Back to Majorca, then! He
+would not live in a palace; the Febrer mansion he would lose forever,
+according to the arrangement made by his friend Valls; but he would not
+fail to have a neat little house in the ward of Terreno or somewhere
+near the sea, and in it the motherly care of Mammy Antonia. No sorrow,
+no shame would await him there. He would even be rid of the presence of
+Don Benito Valls and his daughter, from whom he had so discourteously
+fled, without a word of excuse. The rich Chueta, according to his
+brother's letter, now lived in Barcelona for the sake of his health, so
+he said; but undoubtedly, as Captain Pablo believed, this journey was
+taken for the purpose of finding a son-in-law unhampered by the
+prejudices which persecuted those of his race on the Island.
+
+As night closed in the Little Chaplain came with his basket of supper.
+While Febrer was greedily eating, with the appetite aroused by his
+gladsome news, the boy's eager eyes roved about the room to see if he
+could discover the letter which had so piqued his curiosity. Nothing was
+in sight. The senor's good spirits finally enlivened him also, and he
+laughed without knowing why, feeling obliged to be in a good humor since
+Don Jaime was so.
+
+Febrer joked him about his approaching return to the Seminary. He was
+thinking of making him a present, an extraordinary gift, he could never
+guess what; compared to it the knife would be worthless. As he said
+this his eyes traveled toward the gun hanging on the wall.
+
+When the boy took his leave Febrer closed the door and diverted himself
+by taking an inventory and making a distribution of the objects which
+filled his dwelling. Within an old crudely carved wooden chest, laid
+away between fragrant herbs, was the clothing carefully folded by
+Margalida in which he had come to Majorca. He would put them on in the
+morning. He thought with a kind of terror of the torture of the boots
+and the torment of the stiff collar after his long season of rustic
+freedom, but he intended to leave the island as he had come to it.
+Everything else he would present to Pep, except the gun, which would go
+to his son; he smiled as he thought of the expression of the young
+seminarist when he should receive this gift, which came rather late. By
+the time he could go hunting with it he would be a priest of one of the
+island districts.
+
+He drew Valls' letter from his pocket again, taking pleasure in reading
+it over and over, as if each time he found fresh items of interest.
+While reading these paragraphs, which were already familiar, his mind
+was dwelling on the good news. His loyal friend Pablo! How timely was
+his advice! It called him from Iviza at the most opportune instant, when
+he was in open war with all these rude people, who were eager for the
+death of the stranger. The captain was right. What was he doing there,
+like a new Robinson Crusoe, and one who could not even enjoy the peace
+of solitude? Valls, opportune, as ever, delivered him from his danger.
+
+His life of a few hours before, when he had not yet received the letter,
+seemed to him absurd and ridiculous. He was a new man now. He smiled
+with shame and pity for that mad man who, the day before, with his gun
+across his shoulder, had journeyed up the mountain to seek a former
+prisoner, challenging him to a barbarous duel in the solitude of the
+forest, as if all the life of the planet were concentrated on this
+little island and one must kill in order to live! As if there were no
+life nor civilization beyond the sheet of blue which surrounded this bit
+of land, with its primitive-souled inhabitants clinging to the customs
+of former centuries! What folly! This was to be the last night of his
+savage existence. On the morrow everything which had occurred would be
+but an interesting recollection, with tales of which he could entertain
+his friends on the Borne.
+
+Febrer suddenly cut the trend of these thoughts, raising his eyes from
+the paper. As his gaze encountered half the room in shadow and the other
+half in a ruddy glow, which made objects flicker and tremble, he seemed
+to return from the long journey on which his imagination had drawn him.
+He was still living in the Pirate's Tower; he was still in the midst of
+darkness, of solitude peopled with whispers of Nature, in the interior
+of a cube of stone, the walls of which seemed to sweat dark mystery.
+
+He had heard something outside; a cry, a howl, different from that of
+the other night, more stifled, more indistinct. Jaime received the
+impression that the cry came from very near, that perhaps it was uttered
+by someone hidden in the clusters of tamarisks.
+
+He concentrated his attention and the howl came again. It was the same
+wild yell he had heard the other night, but low, repressed, hoarse, as
+if he who uttered it feared that the cry would scatter too much, and had
+placed his hands around his mouth in order to send it directly by means
+of this natural trumpet.
+
+His first surprise subsided, he laughed softly, shrugging his
+shoulders. He did not intend to stir. What did primitive customs matter
+to him now, these peasant challenges? "Howl, my good man; yell until
+you're tired! I'm deaf!"
+
+To divert his mind he returned to the reading of his letter, enjoying
+with particular zest the long list of creditors, many of whose names
+evoked choleric visions or grotesque recollections.
+
+The howl continued at long intervals, and each time that the hoarse
+stridency pierced the silence Febrer thrilled with impatience and
+choler. Must he spend the whole night without sleep on account of this
+serenade of threats?
+
+It occurred to him that perhaps the enemy concealed in the bushes saw
+his light through the cracks of the door and that this caused him to
+persist in his provocations. He blew out the candle and laid down on the
+bed, experiencing a sensation of comfort at being in the dark, with his
+back sunk into the soft, yielding mattress. That barbarian might howl
+for hours, or until he lost his voice. He did not intend to stir. What
+did the insults matter to him now? And he laughed with a joy of physical
+comfort, lying in his soft couch, while the other was making himself
+hoarse out there in the bushes, with his weapon ready and his eye alert.
+What a disappointment for the enemy!
+
+Febrer was almost lulled to sleep by these cries of challenge. He had
+barricaded the door as he had done the night before. As long as the
+shouts continued he knew that he was in no danger. Suddenly, by a
+supreme effort, he sat up, flinging off a stupor which preceded sleep.
+He no longer heard howls. It was the mystery of silence which had
+awakened him, a silence more threatening and disquieting than the
+hostile shouts.
+
+By listening intently he thought he could perceive a movement, a faint
+creaking of wood, something like the insignificant weight of a cat
+creeping from step to step, climbing up the stairway to the tower, with
+long intervals of waiting.
+
+Jaime felt for his revolver, and he sat holding it with a tight clutch.
+The weapon seemed to tremble between his fingers. He began to feel the
+anger of the strong man who realizes the presence of an enemy at his
+door.
+
+The cautious ascent ceased, perhaps half way up the stairs, and after a
+long silence, Febrer heard a low voice, a voice meant for him alone. It
+was the voice of the Ironworker. It invited him to step outside, it
+called him coward, uniting to this insult outrageous indignities against
+the detested isle of Majorca where Jaime was born.
+
+Jaime sprang from his couch with a sudden impulse, the springs creaking
+loudly beneath him. As he arose to his feet in the dark, with his
+revolver in his hand, he began, to feel nothing but scorn for his
+challenger. Why heed him? It were better to go back to bed. There was a
+long pause, as if the enemy, when he heard the creaking springs, stood
+waiting for the inhabitant of the tower to come out. Time passed, and
+the hoarse and insulting voice once more pierced the calm of night. It
+called him coward again; it invited the Majorcan to come out. "Come out,
+you son of a----"
+
+At this insult Febrer trembled, and thrust his revolver back into his
+belt. His mother, his poor mother, pale and sick, and as sweet as a
+saint, whose memory was evoked by the greatest of infamies in the mouth
+of that criminal!
+
+He started instinctively toward the door, colliding after a few steps
+with the barricade of tables and chairs. No; not the door. A rectangle
+of blue and hazy light was framed by the dark wall. Jaime had opened the
+window. The starry light faintly illuminated the contraction of his
+countenance, a cold grin, desperate, cruel, which gave him resemblance
+to the knight commander Don Priamo and other navigators of war and
+destruction whose dust-covered portraits were hanging in the great house
+in Majorca.
+
+He seated himself on the window, threw his legs over the sill, and
+cautiously began to descend, feeling with his toes for the hollows in
+the wall.
+
+As his feet touched earth he drew his revolver from his belt, and
+bending low, one hand on the ground, he crept around the base of the
+tower. His feet became entangled in the roots of the tamarisks which the
+wind had bared, and which sunk in the earth like a tangled skein of
+black serpents. Each time that he was stopped by a mesh of roots, each
+time that a stone rolled down or made a sound, he stopped, holding his
+breath. He was trembling, not with fear, but with the eagerness of the
+hunter who fears he may arrive too late. He longed to fall upon the
+enemy, to lay hands upon him while he stood near the door muttering his
+deadly insults!
+
+Dragging himself along the ground, he came to where he could see the
+lower end of the stairway, then the upper steps, and finally the door,
+which stood out white in the light of the stars. Nobody! The enemy had
+fled.
+
+In his surprise he stood erect, intently watching the black and
+undulating spot of bushes which extended around the foot of the
+stairway. Suddenly a red serpent, a streak of flame, followed by a tiny
+cloud and a thunder clap, leapt from out the tamarisks. Jaime thought he
+had been struck in the breast by a stone, a hot pebble, perhaps flung
+into the air by the concussion from the detonation.
+
+"It's nothing!" he thought.
+
+But at the same instant he found himself lying on the ground flat on his
+back.
+
+He turned instinctively, lying with his breast on the earth, resting on
+one hand, extending the other which grasped the revolver. He felt
+strong; he repeated to himself that it was nothing; but suddenly his
+body almost refused to obey his will. He seemed to be glued to the
+ground. He saw the bushes move, as if stirred by some dark animal,
+cautious and malignant. There was the enemy! It thrust out first its
+head, then its trunk, and finally its legs from the crackling bushes.
+
+With the rapid vision which accompanies the drowning man, a vision in
+which are concentrated fleeting recollections of all his former life,
+Febrer thought of his youth, when he used to fire off his pistol while
+lying on the ground in the garden at Palma as if rehearsing for a deadly
+encounter. The preparation of long ago was going to stand him in good
+stead now.
+
+He clearly saw the black bulk of the enemy, motionless and in the line
+of sight of his revolver. His vision was becoming more hazy, more
+indistinct, as if the night were steadily growing darker. The enemy was
+approaching cautiously, also with a weapon in his hand, no doubt with
+the intention of finishing his deadly work. Then Febrer pulled on the
+trigger, once, twice, and again, believing that the weapon did not work,
+failing to hear the detonations, telling himself in his desperation that
+his enemy was going to fall upon him while he was without means of
+defense. He no longer saw the enemy. A white haze spread before his
+eyes; his ears buzzed--but when he thought he felt his adversary near,
+the mist cleared away, he saw the calm blue light of night again, and,
+a few steps away, also stretched on the ground, lay a body writhing,
+arching itself, clawing the earth, emitting a harsh groan, a hiccough of
+death.
+
+Jaime could not understand this marvel. Really was it he himself who had
+fired a shot?
+
+He tried to get up, but as he touched the ground his hands dabbled in a
+thick, warm clay. He touched his breast and he also found it wet by
+something warm and thick, dripping ceaselessly in slender streams. He
+tried to contract his legs in order to kneel, but his legs would not
+obey him. Only then was he convinced that he was wounded.
+
+His eyes lost clearness of vision. He saw the tower double, then triple,
+then a curtain of cubes of stone extending along the coast, sinking into
+the sea. An acrid taste spread from his palate to his lips. It seemed to
+him that he was drinking something warm and strong, but that he was
+drinking it wrong way about, by a caprice of the mechanism of his life,
+the strange liquor reaching his palate from the depths of his vitals.
+The black bulk which lay writhing and moaning a few steps away, seemed
+to grow larger every time he touched the ground in his contortions. Now
+he was an apoplectic animal, a monster of the night, which, as it arched
+its body, reached the stars.
+
+The barking of dogs, and the voices of human beings dissolved this
+phantom of solitude. Out of the darkness appeared lights.
+
+"Don Jaime! Don Jaime!"
+
+Whose voice was this? Where had he heard it before?
+
+He saw dark figures stirring about, bending over him, carrying red stars
+in their hands. He saw a man holding back another smaller one who
+carried in his hand a white lightning flash, perhaps a knife, with
+which he tried to finish the kicking monster.
+
+He saw no more. He felt a pair of soft arms lift his head. A voice, the
+same one he had heard a moment ago, tremulous and tearful, sounded in
+his ears, thrilling him to the depths of his soul.
+
+"Don Jaime! Alas, Don Jaime!"
+
+He felt on his mouth a sweet touch, something which caressed him with a
+silky sensation; gradually the contact pressed more close, until it
+became a frantic kiss, desperate, mad with grief.
+
+Before sight forsook him he smiled weakly as he recognized near his own
+a pair of eyes tearful with love and pain; the eyes of Margalida.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+LIFE AND LOVE COMMAND
+
+
+When Febrer found himself in a room in Can Mallorqui, lying on a white
+bed--perhaps Margalida's bed--he began to recall the events of a short
+time before.
+
+He had walked to the farmhouse supported by Pep and the Little Chaplain,
+feeling on his back sympathetic, trembling hands. His recollections were
+vague, dim, surrounded by a nimbus of white haze; something resembling
+the confused memory of acts and words after a day of intoxication.
+
+He recalled that his head had fallen on Pep's shoulder with mortal
+weariness; that his strength was deserting him, as if his life were
+escaping with the warm and sticky stream trickling down his breast and
+his back. He recollected that behind him sounded deafening groans,
+broken words imploring the aid of all the celestial powers; and he, in
+his weakness, his temples palpitating from the buzzing that accompanied
+the dizziness, made strenuous efforts to steady himself, advancing step
+by step, with the fear of falling in the roadway and remaining there
+forever. How interminable seemed the journey down to Can Mallorqui! It
+appeared to have lasted hours, days; in his dulled memory the walk
+seemed as long as the whole of his former life.
+
+When at last friendly hands helped him climb into bed and began
+removing his clothing by the light of a candle, Febrer experienced a
+sensation of well-being and rest. He wished never to arise from this
+soft couch; he desired to remain here for all time!
+
+Blood! The brilliant red of blood everywhere--on his jacket and shirt
+which were tossed at the foot of the bed as if they were rags, on the
+stiff white sheets, in the basin of water which reddened as Pep wet a
+cloth to bathe Febrer's chest. Each garment removed from his body was
+dripping. His underclothing separated from his flesh with a wrench which
+made him shiver. The light of the candle, with its trembling flame, drew
+from the shadows a prevailing tone of red.
+
+The women began to wail. Margalida's mother, forgetting all prudence,
+clasped her hands and raised her eyes with an expression of terror.
+Reina Santisima!
+
+Febrer wondered at these exclamations. He was all right; why were the
+women so alarmed? Margalida, silent, her eyes enlarged by terror, moved
+about the room, turning over clothing, opening chests with the
+precipitation of fear, but never becoming confused at the furious cries
+of her father.
+
+Good old Pep, frowning, a greenish pallor on his dark countenance,
+attended the wounded man, while at the same time he gave orders.
+
+"Lint! Bring more lint! Silence, women! Why so many cries and
+lamentations?"
+
+He ordered his wife to go in search of a little pot of marvelous unguent
+treasured up ever since the times of his glorious father, the formidable
+man-slayer accustomed to wounds.
+
+And when the mother, astounded at these abrupt orders, started to join
+Margalida in search of the remedy, her husband called her back to the
+bedside. She must hold the senor. Pep had turned him on his side in
+order to examine and wash his breast and back, declaring that he had
+seen worse sights than this in his younger days, and that he understood
+something about wounds. When the blood was wiped off with a wet cloth
+two orifices were left exposed, one in the chest and the other in the
+back. Good! The ball had passed through his body; it would not have to
+be extracted, and this was an advantage.
+
+With his rustic hands, to which he endeavored to impart a feminine
+tenderness, he tried to form tampons of lint to introduce into the
+wounds, which continued gently emitting the red liquid. Margalida,
+wrinkling her brows and turning away to avoid meeting Febrer's eyes, at
+last brushed Pep aside.
+
+"Let me do it, father. Perhaps I can do it better."
+
+Jaime thought he felt on his bare flesh, sensitive, vibrating from the
+cruel wound, a sensation of coolness, of sweet calm, as the tampons were
+pressed into it by the girl's fingers.
+
+Jaime remained motionless, feeling against his back and on his breast
+the cloths piled up by the two women in their horror at the blood.
+
+The optimism which had animated him when he sank and fell near the
+tower, reappeared. Surely it was nothing, an insignificant wound; he
+felt better already. He was troubled by the sad expressions and the
+silence of those around him, and he smiled to encourage them. He tried
+to speak, but his first attempt at words produced extreme fatigue.
+
+The peasant restrained him with a gesture. Silence, Don Jaime; he must
+keep perfectly still. The doctor would soon be here. Pepet had mounted
+the best horse on the place and had ridden to San Jose to call him.
+
+On seeing Don Jaime's eyes opened wide in astonishment, persisting in
+his encouraging smile, Pep continued speaking in order to divert
+Febrer's mind. He told him that he had been sound asleep when suddenly
+he was awakened by his wife calling him, and by the cries of the
+children, who made a rush for the door. Outside the farmhouse, in the
+direction of the tower, sounded shots. Another attack on the senor, the
+same as two nights before! When Pepet heard the two last shots he seemed
+to rejoice. Those were from Don Jaime; he recognized the sound of his
+revolver.
+
+Pep had lighted a lantern, his wife took the candle, and they all rushed
+up the hill to the tower, without giving a thought to danger. The first
+one they found was the Ironworker, his head streaming blood, writhing
+and howling like a demon.
+
+His sinful life was ended, God have mercy on his soul! Pep had been
+compelled to lay hands on his son, who had turned, furious and malignant
+as a monkey, when he saw who it was, and drew a great knife from his
+belt, with the intention of finishing him. Where had Pepet found that
+weapon? Boys are the very devil! A fine plaything for a seminarist!
+
+The father glanced significantly at the knife presented to the Little
+Chaplain by Febrer, which was lying on a chair.
+
+They had discovered the senor lying face downward near the tower
+stairway. Ah, Don Jaime, what a fright he and his family had! They
+thought him dead. In circumstances like this one realizes his affection
+for a person; and the good peasant glanced tenderly at Jaime, and was
+accompanied in this mute caress by the two women, who pressed close to
+the bed.
+
+This glance of affection and of sorrowful anxiety was the last thing
+Febrer saw. His eyes closed, and he gradually fell into a stupor,
+without dreams, without delirium, in the gray softness of the void.
+
+When he opened his eyes again the light which illuminated the room was
+no longer red. He saw the candle hanging in the same place with its wick
+black and dull. A cold, gloomy light penetrated through the little
+window of the sleeping room; the light of dawn. Jaime experienced a
+sensation of chill. The covers were being withdrawn from his body; agile
+hands were touching the bandages of his wounds. The flesh, numb a few
+hours before, now flinched at the lightest touch with the excruciating
+vibration of the pain, arousing an irresistible desire to groan.
+
+Following with his clouded eyes the hands which were torturing him,
+Febrer saw a pair of black sleeves, then a cravat, a shirt collar
+different from those used by the peasants, and above all this a face
+with a gray mustache, a face he had often seen on the roads, but which
+failed to arouse in his memory a name; however, gradually he came to
+recognize it. It must be the doctor from San Jose whom he had seen
+frequently on horseback or driving along in a buggy; an old
+practitioner, wearing sandals like a peasant, and differing from them
+only in his cravat and his stiff collar, signs of superiority which he
+carefully maintained.
+
+How the man tormented him as he touched his flesh, which seemed to have
+grown tense, becoming more sensitive, with a sickly and timid
+sensitiveness, as if it would contract at the mere contact with air!
+When this face was lost to his view and he no longer felt the torture of
+the hands he sank again into restful sleep. He closed his eyes, but his
+hearing seemed to be sharpened. He heard low voices in the next room,
+but he could only catch a few phrases. An unknown voice was
+congratulating himself that the ball had not remained in the body;
+undoubtedly in its trajectory it had passed through the lung. Here arose
+a chorus of exclamations of astonishment, of repressed sighs, and then
+of protest from the unfamiliar voice. Yes, the lung; but there was no
+cause for alarm.
+
+"The lung heals readily. It is the most tractable organ of the whole
+body. The only thing to be feared is traumatic pneumonia."
+
+Hearing this, Febrer persisted in his optimism. "It is nothing: it is
+nothing." And again he fell gently into the hazy sea of sleep, a sea
+immense, smooth, heavy, in which visions and sensations sank without
+causing a ripple or leaving a trace.
+
+From that instant Febrer lost count of time and reality. He still lived;
+he was sure of it, but his life was abnormal, strange, a long life of
+shadow and inconsequence with short intervals of light. He opened his
+eyes and it was night; the little window was black and the candle flame
+colored everything with flickering red spots which joined the shadows in
+a merry jig. He opened them again, imagining that only a few moments had
+passed, and it was day once more; a ray of sunshine entered the room,
+tracing a circle of gold at the foot of the bed. In this way day and
+night succeeded each other with strange rapidity, as if the course of
+time had become forever reversed; or it seemed to remain stationary,
+with a maddening monotony. When the sick man opened his eyes it was
+night, eternally night, as if the globe were overwhelmed by unending
+darkness. Again it seemed that the sun were forever shining, as in the
+Arctic regions.
+
+During one of his waking spells his eyes met those of the Little
+Chaplain. Thinking him suddenly better, the boy spoke in a low voice so
+as not to incur the ire of his father, who had commanded silence.
+
+The Ironworker had already been buried. The bully lay rotting in the
+earth. What a true shot Don Jaime was! What a hand he had! He had broken
+the braggart's head.
+
+The boy recalled what had taken place afterward with the pride of one
+who has enjoyed the honor of witnessing an historic event. The judge had
+come from the city with his tasselled staff, the chief of the Civil
+Guard and two gentlemen carrying papers and bottles of ink; all with an
+escort of men wearing three-cornered hats and carrying guns. These
+omnipotent personages, after a rest at Can Mallorqui, had climbed up to
+the tower, examining everything, prying all around, running over the
+ground as if to measure it, compelling him, the Little Chaplain, to lie
+down in the very spot where Don Jaime had been found, adopting a similar
+posture. After the visit of the magistrate some pious neighbors had
+borne the body of the Ironworker to the cemetery of San Jose, and the
+powerful representatives of the law had come down to the farmhouse to
+quiz the wounded man. It was impossible to make him speak. He was sound
+asleep, and when they aroused him he looked at them with a vague stare,
+and immediately closed his eyes again. Really did not the senor
+remember? They would question him again some other time when he was
+well. There was nothing to worry about; the magistrates and all
+honorable people were in his favor. As the Ironworker had no near
+relatives to avenge his death and as he had made himself obnoxious, the
+people had no reason for keeping silent, and they all spoke the truth.
+The Ironworker had gone two nights in search of the senor in his tower,
+and the senor had defended himself. It was certain that nothing would
+be done to him. Thus declared the Little Chaplain, who, on account of
+his warlike tendencies, possessed some of the characteristics of a juris
+consult. "Self defense, Don Jaime----" It was the sole topic of
+conversation on the island. It was discussed in the cafes and casinos
+throughout the city. They had even written to Palma, giving news of the
+affair so that it would be published in the daily papers. By this time
+his friends in Majorca would have heard all about it.
+
+The trial would be short. The only one who had been taken to Iviza and
+thrust into jail was the Minstrel, on account of his threats and lies.
+He tried to make the people believe that it was he who had gone in
+search of the detested Majorcan; he extolled the Ironworker as an
+innocent victim; but he was to be set at liberty at any time by the
+magistrate who was tired of his deceptions and his lying tales. The boy
+spoke of him with scorn. That chicken could not pride himself on having
+wounded a man. A mere farce!
+
+Sometimes when the injured man opened his eyes he saw the motionless and
+muffled figure of Pep's wife who sat staring at him with expressionless
+eyes, moving her lips as if in prayer, and giving vent to profound
+sighs. No sooner did she encounter the glassy gaze of Febrer than she
+ran to a small table covered with bottles and glasses. Her affection was
+manifested by an incessant desire to make him drink all the liquids
+ordered by the doctor.
+
+When, in moments of turbid wakefulness, Jaime found Margalida's face
+bending over him, he experienced a joy which helped to dispel his
+drowsiness. The girl's eyes wore an adoring and timorous expression. She
+seemed to be imploring forgiveness with her tearful orbs outlined with
+blue against the nunlike delicacy of her skin. "For me! All on account
+of me!" she seemed to say tacitly, with a gesture of remorse.
+
+She approached him timidly, vacillating, but without a flush of color,
+as if the strangeness of the circumstances had overcome her former
+shrinking. She arranged the disordered covers of his couch, she gave him
+to drink, and she raised his head to smooth his pillows. When Febrer
+tried to speak she raised her index finger to impose silence.
+
+Once the wounded man grasped her hand as she passed and pressed it
+against his lips, caressing it with a prolonged kiss. Margalida dared
+not draw it away. She turned her head as if she wished to hide her
+tear-filled eyes. She groaned with anguish, and the sick man thought he
+heard expressions of remorse such as he had divined in her manner. "On
+account of me! It happened on account of me!" Jaime experienced a
+sensation of joy at her tears. Oh, sweet Almond Blossom!
+
+Now he no longer saw the fine, pale face; he could distinguish only the
+flash of her eyes, surrounded by white mist, as one sees the splendor of
+the sun on a stormy morning. His temples throbbed cruelly, his sight
+grew turbid. The sweet stupor, soft and empty as nothingness, was
+succeeded by a sleep peopled with incoherent visions, of fiery images
+vibrating against a background of intense blackness, by torture which
+wrung from his breast groans of fear and cries of anguish. He was
+delirious. Often he would awake from one of his frightful nightmares for
+an instant, barely long enough to find himself sitting up in bed, his
+arms pinned down by other arms, which endeavored to hold him. Then he
+would sink back into that world of shadows, peopled with horrors. In
+this fleeting consciousness, like a hasty vision of light from a
+breathing-hole in the darkness of a tunnel, he recognized near his bed
+the sorrowful faces of the family of Can Mallorqui. Again his eyes would
+encounter those of the doctor, and once he even thought he saw the gray
+whiskers and the oil-colored eyes of his friend, Pablo Valls. "Illusion!
+Madness!" he thought, as he sank once more into lethargy.
+
+Sometimes while his eyes remained sunk in this world of gloom, furrowed
+by the red comets of nightmare, his ear vibrated weakly with words which
+seemed to come from far, very far away, but which were uttered near his
+bedside. "Traumatic pneumonia--delirium." These words were repeated by
+different voices, but he doubted that they referred to himself. He felt
+well. This was nothing; a strong desire to continue lying down; a
+renunciation of life; the voluptuosity of keeping still, of lying there
+until the approach of death, which did not arouse in him the slightest
+fear.
+
+His brain, disordered by fever, seemed to whirl and whirl in mad
+rotation, and these cycles evoked in his confused mind an image which
+had often filled it. He saw a wheel, an enormous wheel, immense as a
+terrestrial sphere, its upper part lost in cloud, its lower arc merging
+in the sidereal dust which glittered in the darkness of the heavens. The
+tire of this wheel was composed of human flesh; millions and millions of
+human beings soldered together, welded, gesticulating, their extremities
+free, moving them to convince themselves of their activity and of their
+liberty, while the bodies were joined one to another. The spokes of the
+wheel attracted Febrer's attention by their diverse forms. Some were
+swords, their blood-stained blades wound with garlands of laurel, the
+symbol of heroism; others seemed golden scepters tipped by crowns of
+kings or emperors; rods of justice; ingots of gold formed by coins laid
+one upon another; shepherd's crooks set with precious stones, symbols of
+divine guidance ever since men grouped themselves into flocks to timidly
+bawl with their gaze fixed on high. The hub of this wheel was a skull,
+white, clean, shiny, as if made of polished ivory; a skull as big as a
+planet, which seemed to remain stationary while everything turned around
+it; a skull luminous, moon-like, which seemed to leer malignantly from
+its dark eye-sockets, silently mocking at all this movement.
+
+The wheel turned and turned. The millions of human beings fastened to it
+in its continual revolution shouted and waved their hands, aroused to
+enthusiasm and enkindled with fervor by the velocity. Jaime saw that no
+sooner did they rise to the highest point than they began to descend
+head downward; but, in their illusion they imagined themselves traveling
+forward, admiring at each revolution new spaces, new things. They
+fancied the very point through which they had passed but a moment before
+an unfamiliar and astounding region. Ignorant of the immovability of the
+center around which they were turning, they believed with the best of
+faith that the movement was an advance. "How we are running! Where are
+we going to stop?" they cried. And Febrer pitied their simplicity,
+seeing their elation at the rapidity of their imagined progress when
+they were actually remaining in the same place; rejoicing in the
+velocity of an ascension on which they started for the millionth time
+and which inevitably must be followed by the downward plunge.
+
+Suddenly Jaime felt himself pressed forward by an irresistible force.
+The great skull smiled at him mockingly. "You, also! Why resist your
+destiny?" And he found himself fastened to the wheel, jumbled with that
+credulous and childish humanity, but lacking the consolation of their
+fond delusion; and his traveling companions insulted him, spat upon him,
+beat him in their indignation when they learned of his absurd denial of
+their movement, believing him insane for holding in doubt something
+which was visible to all.
+
+At last the wheel exploded, filling the black space with flames, with
+thousands of millions of cries and tremulous vibrations from the human
+beings hurled through the mystery of eternity; and he fell and fell, for
+years, for centuries, until he dropped upon the soft bed. Then he opened
+his eyes. Margalida stood near, gazing at him by the candle light with
+an expression of terror. It must be the early morning. The poor girl
+gave a gasp of fear as she grasped his arms with her trembling little
+hands.
+
+"Don Jaime! Ay, Don Jaime!"
+
+He had cried out like an insane man; he was leaning over the bed with an
+evident desire to fall to the floor, he had been talking about a wheel
+and a skull. "What is the matter, Don Jaime?"
+
+The invalid felt the loving touch of gentle hands, which smoothed his
+disordered clothing, drew up the covers and tucked them around his
+shoulders, maternally, with the same caressing care as if he were a
+child.
+
+Before sinking back into a state of mental confusion, before again
+passing through the fiery gateway of delirium, he saw close to his face
+the moist eyes of Margalida, which were ever growing more sad and
+tearful within their circles of blue. He felt the warm gust of her
+breath on his lips, and then he felt their thrill at a silky, moist
+contact, a light, timid caress, similar to the brushing of a wing.
+"Sleep, Don Jaime." The senor must sleep. And despite the respect with
+which she addressed him, her words possessed a murmur of affectionate
+intimacy, as if Don Jaime were to her a different man since the
+misfortune which had drawn them together.
+
+The delirium of fever dragged the sick man through strange worlds, where
+not the slightest vestige of reality remained. He was in his solitary
+tower again. The gloomy fortress was no longer constructed of stone; it
+was formed of skulls joined like blocks of stone by a mortar of
+bonedust. Of bones also were the hill and the cliffs along the coast;
+white skeletons the lines of foam which crowned the breakers from the
+sea. Everything that his view embraced, trees and mountains, ships and
+distant islands, became an ossified, glacial landscape. Craniums with
+wings similar to those of cherubims in religious pictures fluttered
+through the heavens uttering through their fleshless jaws hoarse hymns
+to the great divinity who filled the whole space with the folds of his
+shroud, and whose bony head was lost in the clouds. He felt that
+invisible beings were ripping off his flesh in bleeding tatters, which,
+having adhered to him throughout a whole lifetime, drew from him shrieks
+of pain as they were torn away. Then he beheld himself a white skeleton,
+bleached and polished, and a far away voice seemed to murmur a horrible
+consecration in his ear-cavities. The moment of true greatness had
+arrived; he had ceased being a man to become converted into a corpse.
+The slave had passed through the great initiation, and had changed to a
+demigod. The dead command! It was only necessary to see with what
+superstitious respect, with what servile fear, the city dwellers saluted
+those who were passing into the great beyond. The powerful bare their
+heads in the presence of the dead beggar.
+
+With the potent vision of his black and eyeless sockets, for which there
+was neither distance nor obstacle, he gazed upon the entire world.
+Dead, dead on every side! They filled everything. He beheld tribunals of
+men dressed in black, their eyes haughty and their gesture imposing,
+listening to the woes of their fellow creatures, while behind them stood
+an equal number of enormous skeletons, endowed with the grandeur of
+centuries, wrapped in togas, who were those who moved the hands of the
+judges as they wrote, and who dictated their sentences over their heads.
+The dead judge! He saw great halls of vertical light with concentric
+rows of seats, and on them hundreds of men speaking, vociferating and
+gesticulating, in the noisy task of making laws. Behind them crouched
+the real legislators, the dead, the deputies in their winding sheets,
+whose presence was unguessed by these men of grandiloquent vanity, who
+imagined that they ever spoke by their own inspiration. The dead
+legislate! In a moment of doubt it was sufficient for someone to recall
+what had been the opinion of the dead in former times in order to
+reestablish calm, everyone accepting their opinion. The dead, eternal
+and immutable, were the only reality! Men of flesh and blood were a mere
+accident, an insignificant bubble bursting with ostentatious pride!
+
+He saw white skeletons guarding like gloomy angels the gates of cities
+which they had built, watching the flock hemmed within, repelling as
+accursed the irresponsible madmen who refused to recognize their
+authority. He saw at the foot of great monuments, museum paintings, and
+shelves of books in the libraries, the mute grin of the craniums which
+seemed to say to men: "Admire us! This is our work, and all which you do
+will be after our example!" The entire world belonged to the dead. They
+reigned. The living, as they opened their mouths to receive food,
+masticated particles of those who had preceded them along the pathway
+of life; when they wished to feast their eyes and ears on beauty, art
+offered them works and precedents established by the dead. Even love
+suffered this servitude. Woman in modesty or in bursts of passion, which
+she deems spontaneous, unconsciously imitated her grandmothers, who had
+been temptresses with hypocritical modesty or frankly voluptuous,
+according to the epochs in which they lived.
+
+In his delirium the sick man began to feel oppressed by the density and
+number of these beings, white and bony, with eyeless sockets and
+malevolent grins, skeletons of a vanished life, obstinately determined
+to continue to subsist, dominating everything. They were so many, so
+many! It was impossible to even stir. Febrer stumbled against their bare
+and prominent ribs, against the sharp angles of their hips; his ears
+vibrated with the dry creaking of their knee-pans. They overpowered him,
+they asphyxiated him; there were millions upon millions; all the
+ancestors of the human race! Finding no space whereon to set their feet,
+they stood in rows one upon another. They were a kind of in-coming tide
+of bones which rose and swelled until it reached the summit of the
+highest mountains and touched the clouds. Jaime was choking in this
+white inundation, hard and crackling. They trampled him underfoot; they
+weighed upon his chest with the heaviness of dead things. He was going
+to die! In his despair he clutched a hand which seemed to come from far
+away, appearing out of the shadows; the hand of a living being, a hand
+of flesh! He tugged at it and gradually in the fog the pale spot began
+to assume the form of a countenance. After his existence in a world of
+empty craniums and bleached bones this human face caused him the same
+sense of grateful surprise as that experienced by the explorer on
+meeting with one of his race after a long sojourn among savage tribes.
+
+He tugged harder at the hand; the vagueness of the countenance became
+condensed, and he recognized Pablo Valls bending over him, moving his
+lips as if murmuring affectionate phrases which he could not hear.
+Again? The captain was always appearing in his delirium!
+
+After this rapid vision the sick man sank back into unconsciousness. Now
+his stupor was more tranquil. His thirst, that horrible thirst, which
+had impelled him to reach his hands outside the bed and to draw his lips
+away from the emptied glass with a gesture of unsatisfied eagerness, now
+began to diminish. In his delirium he had seen clear streams, great
+silent rivers, which he could never reach, his limbs overcome by a
+painful paralysis. Now he beheld a luminous and foaming cataract rolling
+down against the background of his dream, and at last he could walk, he
+could approach it, seeing it more clearly at each step, feeling the cool
+caress of the moisture on his face.
+
+From out the noise of this waterfall stifled voices reached his ears.
+Someone was talking of traumatic pneumonia again. "It is conquered." And
+a voice added joyfully: "That is good! We have a man again!" The invalid
+recognized this voice. Pablo Valls was ever reappearing in his delirium!
+
+He continued on his way, attracted by the coolness of the water. He
+stood beneath the sonorous torrent and he thrilled with voluptuous
+shivers as he received on his back the force of the falling stream. A
+sensation of freshness overspread his body, causing him to sigh with
+pleasure. His limbs seemed to relax beneath the icy touch. His chest
+broadened, overcoming the oppression which had tortured him until a
+moment ago, as if the whole earth weighed upon his body. He felt the
+haze clearing away from his brain. He was still delirious, but his
+delirium was not pierced by scenes of terror and cries of anguish. It
+was, instead, a placid sleep, in which the body relaxed, and his
+thoughts took wing through pleasant horizons of optimism. The foam of
+the cascade was white, reflecting the colors of the rainbow on its
+facets of liquid diamonds. The sky was a rose tint, with distant music
+and mild perfumes. Something trembled mysteriously, invisible, and at
+the same time smiling, in this fantastic atmosphere; a supernatural
+force which seemed to beautify it with its contact. It was returning
+health!
+
+The incessant waters falling over the cliffs, aroused in his memory
+former dreams. Once more the wheel, the immense wheel, the image of
+humanity, which turned and turned in its identical place, beginning one
+ascent after another, ever passing the same places.
+
+The sick man, revived by the sensation of coolness, thought that he
+possessed a new sense of understanding.
+
+Again he saw the wheel revolving through the infinite, but was it really
+stationary?
+
+Doubt, the beginning of new truths, caused him to look with closer
+attention. Was it not a deception of his own eyes? Was it he who was
+mistaken, and were not those millions of beings who uttered shouts of
+joy in their whirling prison right in thinking that they realized a
+fresh advance with each whirl?
+
+It was cruel for life to go on developing for hundreds of centuries in
+this deceptive agitation, concealing an actual inactivity. For what then
+the existence of created things? Had humanity no other purpose than to
+deceive itself, turning by its own effort the cylinder which imprisoned
+it, as birds by their springing cause the cage which is their prison to
+vibrate?
+
+Now he no longer saw the wheel. Before his vision passed an enormous
+globe of bluish color, on which were marked the seas and continents with
+outlines like those he had seen on maps. It was the Earth! He, an
+imperceptible molecule in the immensity of space, an abject spectator of
+the stupendous representation of Nature, beheld the blue globe with its
+girdle of clouds.
+
+It also was revolving like the fatal wheel. It turned and turned upon
+itself with exasperating monotony, but this movement which was the
+nearest, the most visible, that which all could appreciate, was
+insignificant. Another movement was the one of real importance. Above
+that of the monotonous rotation, ever around the same axis, was that of
+translation, which dragged the globe through the infinitude of space in
+eternal travel, never re-passing through the same place.
+
+Curses on the wheel! Life was not an eternal revolution through
+identical situations! Only the shortsighted, seeing no farther beyond,
+as they contemplated this movement, could imagine that it was the only
+one. The earth itself was the image of life. It ever rotated through
+determined spaces of time; days and seasons were repeated, as, in the
+history of mankind, greatness and decline follow each other; but there
+was something more than all this; the movement of translation, which
+drew toward the infinite, ever forward, ever forward!
+
+The theory of "the eternal re-beginning of things" was false. Men and
+events were repeated as are days and seasons on earth; but although
+everything seemed alike it was not really so. The outer form of objects
+might be similar, but the soul was different!
+
+No; the wheel had vanished! Perish inactivity! The dead could not
+command! The world, in its forward movement, ran so fast that they could
+not sustain themselves upon its surface. They clutched at the crust
+with their bony claws, struggling for years, perhaps for centuries, to
+keep firm hold, but the velocity of the race finally cast them off,
+leaving in their wake a trail of broken bones, of dust, of nothing!
+
+The world, filled with the living, traveled straight forward, never
+passing over the same place twice. Febrer had seen it appear on the
+horizon like a tear of luminous blue, then grow larger and larger, until
+it filled the whole of space, passing near him with the velocity of a
+rotating projectile; and now it was becoming smaller again, fleeing
+through the opposite extreme. Now it was a drop, a point,
+nothing--becoming lost in obscurity! Who knew whither it was bound, and
+why?
+
+Futilely his ideas of a moment before, being now overcome, returned with
+the purpose of making a final protest, shouting that this movement of
+translation was equally false, and that the Earth turned like a wheel
+around the sun--no; neither was the sun stationary, but with all its
+familiar company of planets, it fell and fell, if it is possible in the
+infinite to fall without rising; it traveled on and on--who knows toward
+what destination, or for what purpose?
+
+Definitely, abominating the wheel, he rent it to bits in his
+imagination, experiencing the joy of the convict who passes out through
+the door of his prison and breathes the air of freedom. He thought that
+scales fell from his eyes as from those of the Hebrew Apostle at
+Damascus. He beheld a new light. Man is free, and he can liberate
+himself from the dead by an effort, cutting the knot of slavery that has
+soldered him to these invisible despots.
+
+He ceased dreaming; he sank into oblivion with the silent and intimate
+joy of the laborer resting after a profitable day's work.
+
+When, after a long time, he re-opened his eyes, he found those of Pablo
+Valls fastened upon his. Valls was holding one of his hands, gazing at
+him affectionately with his amber pupils.
+
+He could no longer doubt; it was reality! He detected the odor of
+English tobacco, which always seemed to float around his mouth and
+beard. Was it not then an illusion? Had he really seen him in the course
+of his delirium? Was it his actual voice which he had heard in the midst
+of his nightmares?
+
+The captain burst into a laugh, displaying his long teeth, yellowed by
+the pipe.
+
+"Ah, my fine fellow!" he exclaimed. "You're better, aren't you? The
+fever has gone; there is no longer any danger. The wounds are healed.
+You must feel the itching of a thousand demons in them; something as if
+you had a thousand wasps under the bandages. That is the formation of
+tissue, the new flesh which hurts as it grows."
+
+Jaime realized the truth of these words. In the region of his wounds he
+felt an itching, a tension which contracted his flesh.
+
+Valls read a supplication of curiosity in the eyes of his friend.
+
+"Do not talk! Do not tire yourself! How long have I been here? About two
+weeks. I read about your accident in the Palma newspapers, and I came
+immediately. Your friend the Chueta will always be the same. What
+anxiety you have given us! Pneumonia, my boy, and in a dangerous form!
+You opened your eyes and you did not recognize me; you raved like a
+madman. But it's all over now! We have given you the best of care. Look!
+See who's here!"
+
+He stepped away from the bed so that Febrer might see Margalida, hidden
+behind the captain, shrinking and timid, now that the senor could look
+at her with eyes free from fever. Ah, Almond Blossom! Jaime's glance,
+tender and sweet, brought a flush to her cheeks. She feared that the
+sick man might remember what she had done in the most critical moments,
+when she was almost sure that he was going to die.
+
+"Now you must keep still," continued Valls. "I will stay here until we
+can go back to Palma together. You know me. I understand everything;
+I'll arrange it all. Eh? Do I make myself clear?"
+
+The Chueta winked one eye and smiled mischievously, sure of his
+cleverness in guessing the desires of his friends.
+
+Famous captain! Ever since his arrival at Can Mallorqui the entire
+family seemed dependent upon his orders, admiring him as a personage of
+immense power, tempered by eternal joviality.
+
+Margalida blushed at his words and winks, but she was fond of him for
+being so devoted to his friend. She remembered his eyes brimming with
+tears one night when they thought Don Jaime was going to die. Valls had
+wept, while at the same time he muttered curses. The Little Chaplain
+adored that great gentleman from Majorca ever since he saw him burst out
+laughing on learning that his parents intended him to be a priest. Pep
+and his wife followed him like obedient and submissive dogs.
+
+Several afternoons Pablo and the sick man discussed past events.
+
+Valls was a man quick in his decisions.
+
+"You know that I never tire of doing for my friends. When I landed in
+Iviza I went to see the judge. Everything can be satisfactorily
+arranged. You are in the right, and everybody knows it--self defense! A
+few annoyances when you get well, but they won't amount to much. The
+matter of your health is decided also. What else is there? Ah, yes!
+There is something else, but I have that about settled also."
+
+He laughed knowingly as he said this, pressing the hands of Febrer, who,
+on his part, wished to ask no more; fearful of suffering a
+disappointment.
+
+Once, when Margalida entered the room, Valls grasped her by the arm and
+drew her near the couch.
+
+"Look at her!" he said, with burlesque gravity, turning toward the sick
+man. "Is this the girl you love? They haven't succeeded in changing her,
+have they? Then give her your hand, stupid! What are you doing there,
+staring at her with those frightened eyes?"
+
+Febrer clasped Margalida's right hand with both of his. Was it really
+true? His eyes sought those of the girl, which remained lowered, while
+emotion whitened her cheeks and made her nostrils palpitate.
+
+"Now kiss each other," said Valls, gently shoving the girl toward
+Febrer.
+
+But Margalida, as if she felt threatened by a danger, freed her hands,
+fleeing from the room.
+
+"Good!" said the captain. "You'll kiss each other before very long--when
+I'm not around."
+
+Valls declared himself in favor of this union. Did Febrer love her? Then
+go ahead. This was more logical than the marriage with his niece for her
+father's millions. Margalida was a fine woman. He understood these
+things; when Jaime should take her away from the island, and accustom
+her to different ways and to different dress, with the adaptability of
+woman, it would soon be impossible to recognize the former peasant girl.
+
+"I have arranged your future, young inquisitor. You know that your
+friend the Jew always accomplishes what he undertakes. You have enough
+left in Majorca so that you can live modestly. Don't shake your head; I
+know that you want to work, and now more than ever since you are in love
+and mean to raise a family. You will work. We'll set up a business
+together; we can decide on that later. I always have my head crammed
+with projects. That's characteristic of my race. If you prefer to leave
+Majorca, I'll look for a situation for you abroad. You must think it
+over."
+
+In all matters relating to the family of Can Mallorqui the captain spoke
+with the authority of a master. Pep and his wife dared not disobey him.
+How could they argue with a senor who knew everything? The peasant
+farmer offered little resistance. Since Don Pablo desired the marriage
+of Margalida to the senor and gave his word that it would not bring
+misfortune to the girl, they might marry. It was a great sorrow for the
+two old people to see her leave the island, but they preferred this to
+having Febrer with them as a son-in-law, for he inspired them with a
+respect which they could not outlive.
+
+The Little Chaplain was almost ready to kneel before Vall's. "And yet
+they say in Palma that Chuetas are bad!" he murmured. It was clear that
+those who said so were Majorcans--a people unjust and proud! The captain
+was a saint. Thanks to him, he would not have to go to the Seminary. He
+would be a peasant-farmer. Can Mallorqui would be left to him. He had
+even received the knife from his father, at the intercession of Don
+Pablo, and he was counting on the gift of a modern pistol promised by
+the captain, one of those marvelous weapons which he had admired in
+Palma in the show windows along the Borne. As soon as Margalida's
+marriage had taken place he would go throughout the district in search
+of a bride, wearing in his girdle two noble companions. The race of
+brave men must not die out on the island. In his veins coursed the
+heroic blood of his grandfather!
+
+One sunny morning Febrer, leaning on Valls and Margalida, made his way
+with the step of a convalescent as far as the porch of the farmhouse.
+Seated in a great armchair he gazed fondly upon the tranquil landscape
+outspread before him. Upon the summit of the headland rose the Pirate's
+Tower. How much he had dreamed and suffered there! Now he loved it as he
+remembered that within it, alone and forgotten of the world, this
+passion, destined to fill the rest of a once aimless life, had
+originated.
+
+Enfeebled by the long weeks in bed and by the loss of blood, he breathed
+in the warm atmosphere of the luminous morning pierced by the breezes
+which blew in from the sea.
+
+Margalida, after contemplating Jaime with loving eyes, which still held
+something of timidity, went into the house to prepare the morning meal.
+
+The two men remained long in silence. Valls had taken out his pipe,
+filling it with English tobacco, and expelling fragrant mouthfuls.
+
+Febrer, with his gaze fixed on the landscape, his dazzled eyes embracing
+the sky, the hills, the fields, and the sea, spoke in a low voice, as if
+talking to himself.
+
+Life was beautiful. He affirmed it with the conviction of one arisen
+from the grave who returns unexpectedly to the world. Man could move
+freely, the same as the bird and the insect, on the bosom of Nature.
+There was a place for all. Why confine oneself by the bonds which others
+had invented, tyrannizing over the future of the men who were to come
+after them? The dead, ever the accursed dead, trying to meddle in
+everything, complicating our existence!
+
+Vall's smiled, looking at him with mischievous eyes. Several times he
+had heard him in his delirium talking of the dead, waving his arms as if
+fighting, trying to repel them with frightful struggles. As he listened
+to Jaime's explanations, as he realized his respect for the past and his
+submission to the influence of the dead that had stultified his life,
+and had banished him to a remote island, Vall's remained silent and lost
+in thought.
+
+"Do you believe that the dead command, Pablo?"
+
+The captain shrugged his shoulders. For him there was nothing absolute
+in the world. Perhaps the dominion of the dead was tottering and was
+already in its decadence. In other times they commanded like despots;
+there was no doubt of that. It might be that now they commanded only in
+some places, in others losing forever all hope of power. In Majorca they
+still governed with a strong hand; he said it, he, the Chueta. In other
+lands, perhaps not.
+
+Febrer experienced deep annoyance as he recalled his mistakes and his
+worries. Accursed dead! Humanity could never be happy and free until
+they should cast off their power.
+
+"Pablo, let us kill the dead!"
+
+The captain looked at his friend for an instant with a certain anxiety,
+but seeing the serenity of his eyes he was reassured and said, smiling:
+
+"Kill them, for all I care!"
+
+Then, recovering his gravity, and leaning back in his chair, while he
+puffed a mouthful of smoke, the Chueta added: "You are right. Let us
+kill the dead! Let us crush beneath our feet all useless obstacles, old
+things that obstruct and complicate our pathway. We live according to
+the word of Moses, to the word of Jesus, of Mohammed, or of other
+shepherds of men, when the natural and logical thing would be to live
+according to what we ourselves think and feel."
+
+Jaime glanced behind him, as if his eyes would seek in the interior of
+the house the sweet figure of Margalida. Then he thought over all his
+old anxieties and all the new truths to which he had awakened, repeating
+the same vigorous declaration: "Let us kill the dead!"
+
+Pablo's voice aroused him from his reflections.
+
+"Would you have married my niece in your present state of mind, without
+fear or compunction?"
+
+Febrer hesitated before replying. Yes, he would have married her,
+regardless of the scruples which had caused him so much suffering; yet
+something was lacking for the fulfillment of that union; something which
+was above the will of man, superior to his power, something which could
+not be bought and which ruled the world; something which the humble
+Margalida unconsciously brought with her.
+
+His troubles had ended. Now for a new life!
+
+No; the dead do not command! It is life that commands, and above life,
+love!
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DEAD COMMAND***
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