Pedro Antonio Joaquín Melitón de Alarcón y Ariza 1833 - 1891
I.
The once famous but now little known town of Aldeire is situated in the
Marquisate of El Cenet, or, let us say, on the eastern slope of the
Alpujarra, and partly hangs over a ledge, partly hides itself in a ravine
of the giant central ridge of Sierra Nevada, five or six thousand feet
above the level of the sea, and seven or eight thousand below the eternal
snows of the Mulhacem.
Aldeire, be it said with all respect to its reverend pastor, is a Moorish
town. That it was formerly Moorish is clearly proved by its name, its
situation, and its architecture, and that it is not yet completely
Christianized, although it figures among the towns of reconquered Spain,
and has its little Catholic church and its confraternities of the Virgin,
of Jesus, and of several of the saints, is proved by the character and the
customs of its inhabitants; by the perpetual feuds, as terrible as they
are causeless, which unite or separate them; and by the gloomy black eyes,
pale complexions, laconic speech, and infrequent laughter of men, women,
and children.
But it may be well to remind our
readers, in order that neither the
aforesaid pastor nor any one else may question the justice of this
reasoning, that the Moors of the Marquisate of El Cenet were not
expelled
in a body, like those of the Alpujarra, but that many of them succeeded
in
remaining in the country, living in concealment, thanks to the prudence
or the cowardice which made them turn a deaf ear to the rash and the
heroic appeal of their unfortunate Prince, Aben Humcya; whence I infer
that Uncle Juan Gomez, nicknamed Hormiga [The Ant], in the year of grace
1821 Constitutional Alcalde of Aldeire, might very well be the
descendant
of some Mustapha, Mohammed, or the like.
It is related, then, that the aforesaid Juan Gomez, a man at the time of
our story about fifty years of age, very shrewd, although he knew neither
how to read nor write, and grasping and industrious to some purpose, as
might be inferred not only from his sobriquet, but also from his wealth,
acquired honestly or otherwise, and invested in the most fertile lands of
the district leased, at a nominal rent, by means of a present to the
secretary of the corporation of some hens which had left off laying, a
piece of arid town land, on which stood an old ruin, formerly a Moorish
watch-tower or hermitage, and still called the Moor's Tower.
Needless to say that Uncle Hormiga did not stop to consider for an instant
who this Moor might be, nor what might have been the original purpose of
the ruined building; the one thing which he saw at once, clear as water,
was, that with the stones which had already fallen from the ruin and those
which he should remove from it, he might make a secure and commodious yard
for his cattle; consequently, on the very day after it came into his
possession, and as a suitable pastime for a man of his thrifty habits, he
began to devote his leisure hours to the task of pulling down what still
remained standing of the ruin.
"You will kill yourself," said his wife, seeing him come home in the
evening, covered with dust and sweat and carrying his crowbar hidden under
his cloak.
"On the contrary," he answered, "this exercise is good for me; it will put
my blood in motion and keep me from being like our sons, the students who,
according to what the storekeeper tells me, were at the theatre in Granada
the other night looking so yellow that it was enough to make one sick to
see them."
"Poor boys ! From studying so much ! But you ought to be ashamed to work
like a laborer, when you are the richest man in the town, and Alcalde into
the bargain."
"That is why I take no one with me. Here, hand me that salad !"
"It would be well to have some one to help you, however. You will spend an
age in pulling down the tower by yourself, and besides, you may not be
able to manage it."
"Don't talk nonsense, Torcuata. When I begin to build the wall of the
cattle yard, I shall hire workmen, and even employ a master-builder. But
any one can pull down. And it is such fun to destroy ! Come, clear away the
table and let us go to bed."
"You speak that way because you are a man. As for me, it disturbs and
saddens me to see things destroyed."
"Old women's notions. If you only knew how many things there are in the
world that ought to be destroyed !"
"Hold your tongue, you free-mason ! It was a misfortune they ever elected
you Alcalde. You will see when the Royalists come into power again that
the king will have you hanged !"
"Yes, we shall see ! Bigot ! Hypocrite ! Owl ! Come, I am sleepy; stop
blessing yourself and put out that light."
And thus they would argue until one or the other of the consorts fell
asleep.
II
One evening Uncle Hormiga returned from his work every thoughtful and
preoccupied, and earlier than usual.
His wife waited until after he had dismissed the laborers to ask him what
was the matter, when he responded by showing her a leaden tube with a
cover, somewhat like the tube in which a soldier on furlough keeps his
leave, from which he drew a yellow parchment covered with crabbed
handwriting, and carefully unrolling it said, with imposing gravity:
"I don't know how to read, even in Spanish, which is the easiest language
in the world, but the devil take me if this was not written by a Moor."
"That is to say that you found it in the tower ?"
"I don't say it on that account alone, but because these spider's legs
don't look like anything I ever saw written by a Christian."
The wife of Juan Gomez looked at the parchment, smelled it, and exclaimed,
with a confidence as amusing as it was ill-founded:
"By a Moor it was written !"
After a while she added, with a melancholy air:
"Although I am but a poor hand myself at reading writing, I would swear
that we hold in our hands the discharge of some soldier of Mohammed who is
now in the bottomless pit."
"You say that on account of the tube."
"On account of the tube I say it."
"Well, then, you are altogether wrong, my dear Torcuata, for such a thing
as conscription was not known among the Moors, nor is this a discharge.
This is a...a..."
Uncle Hormiga glanced around him cautiously, lowered his voice, and said
with air of absolute certainty:
"This paper contains directions where to find a treasure !"
"You are right !" cried his wife, suddenly inspired with the same belief;
"and have you already found it ? Is it very big ? Did you cover it up
carefully again? Are the coins gold or silver ? Do you think they will pass
current now ? What a happiness for our boys ! How they will spend money and
enjoy themselves in Granada and Madrid ! I want to have a look at it. Let
us go there. There is a moon to-night !"
"Silly woman ! Be quiet ! How do you suppose that I could find the treasure
by these directions, when I don't know how to read, either in Moorish or
in Christian ?"
"That's true ! Well, then, I'll tell you what to do. As soon as it is
daylight, saddle a good mule, cross the Sierra through the Puerto de la
Laguna, which they say is safe now, and go to Ugijar, to the house of our
gossip, Don Matias Quesada who knows something of everything. He will
explain what is in the paper and give you good advice, as he always does."
"And money enough his advice has cost me, not withstanding our gossipred !
But I was thinking of doing that myself. In the morning I will start for Ugijar and be back by nightfall; I can do that easily by putting the mule to his speed."
But I was thinking of doing that myself. In the morning I will start for Ugijar and be back by nightfall; I can do that easily by putting the mule to his speed."
"But be sure and explain everything to him clearly."
"I have very little to explain. The tube was hidden in a hollow, or niche,
in the wall, and covered with tiles, like those at Valencia. I tore down
the whole of the wall, but I found nothing else. At the surface of the
ground begin the foundation walls, built of immense stones, more than a
yard square, any one of which it would take two or three men as strong as
I am to move. Consequently, it is necessary to know exactly where the
treasure is hidden, unless we want to tear up all the foundation walls of
the tower, which could not be done without outside help."
"No no; set out for Ugijar as soon as it is daybreak. Offer our gossip a
part, not a large one, of what we may find, and as soon as we know where
we must dig, I will help you myself to tear up the foundation stones. My
darling boys ! It is all for them ! For my part, the only thing that
troubles me is lest there be some sin in this business that we are
whispering about."
"What sin can there be in it, you great fool ?"
"I can't explain what I mean, but treasures have always seemed to me to
have something to do with the devil, or the fairies. And then, you got
that ground for so low a rent ! The whole town says there was some trickery
in the business !"
"That concerns the secretary and councillors. They drew up the documents."
"Besides, as I understand, when a treasure is discovered, a part of it
must be given to the king."
"That is when it is found on ground that is not one's own, like mine !"
"One's own ! One's own ! Who knows to whom that tower the Council sold you
belonged !"
"Why, to the Moor, of course !"
"And who knows who that Moor may have been ? It seems to me, Juan, whatever
money the Moor may have hidden in his house should belong to him, or to
his heirs, not to you or to me."
"You are talking nonsense. According to that, it is not I who ought to be
the Alcalde of Aldeire, but the man who was Alcalde a year ago, at the
time of the proclamation of Riego. According to that, we should have to
send the rents of the lands of Granada and Guadix, and hundreds of other
towns, every year to the descendants of the Moors in Africa."
"It may be that you are right. At any rate, go to Ugijar, and our gossip
will tell you what is best to be done in the matter."
III
Ugijar is distant from Aldeire some four leagues, and the road between the
two towns is a very bad one.
Before nine o'clock on the following morning, however, Uncle Juan Gomez, wearing his blue stockinet knee-breeches and his embroidered white Sunday boots, was in the office of Don Matias de Quesada, a vigorous old man, a doctor in civil and criminal jurisprudence, the most noted criminal lawyer in that part of the country. He had always been a promoter of lawsuits, and was very wealthy, and had a large circle of influential acquaintances in Granada and Madrid.
Before nine o'clock on the following morning, however, Uncle Juan Gomez, wearing his blue stockinet knee-breeches and his embroidered white Sunday boots, was in the office of Don Matias de Quesada, a vigorous old man, a doctor in civil and criminal jurisprudence, the most noted criminal lawyer in that part of the country. He had always been a promoter of lawsuits, and was very wealthy, and had a large circle of influential acquaintances in Granada and Madrid.
When he had heard his worthy gossip's story and had carefully examined the
paper, he gave it as his opinion that the document had nothing whatever to
do with the treasure; that the hole in which the tube had been found was a
sort of closet, and the writing one of the prayers which the Moors read
every Friday morning. But notwithstanding this, as he was not thoroughly
versed in the Arabic language, he added that he would send the document to
a college companion of his who was employed in the Commission of the Holy
Places, in Madrid, in order that he might send it to Jerusalem, where it
could be translated into Spanish, for which purpose it would be well to
inclose to his friend in Madrid a draft for a couple of ounces in gold,
for a cup of chocolate.
Uncle Juan Gomez considered seriously before he made up his mind to pay so
high a price for a cup of chocolate (which would be paying for the article
at the rate of 10,240 reals a pound), but he was so certain in regard to
the treasure (and in truth he was not mistaken, as we shall see later on),
that he took from his belt eight gold pieces of four dollars each and
delivered them to Don Matias, who weighed them one by one before putting
them into his purse, after which Hormiga took the road back to Aldeire,
resolving in his own mind to continue his excavations under the Moor's
tower while the document went to the Holy Land and came back translated;
proceedings which, according to the lawyer, would occupy something like a
year and a half.
IV
Uncle Juan had no sooner turned his back upon his gossip and counsellor
than the latter took his pen and wrote the following letter:
"Don Bonifacio Tudela y Gonzalez, Chapel-master of the Cathedral of Ceuta.
"MY DEAR NEPHEW-IN-LAW,
To no one but a man of your piety would I confide the important secret contained in the accompanying document. I say important, because without a doubt in it are directions for finding the hiding-place of a TREASURE, of which I will give you a part if I should succeed in discovering it with your help. To this end you must get a Moor to translate the document for you and send me the translation in a certified letter, mentioning the matter to no one, unless it be your wife, whom I know to be a person of discretion.
To no one but a man of your piety would I confide the important secret contained in the accompanying document. I say important, because without a doubt in it are directions for finding the hiding-place of a TREASURE, of which I will give you a part if I should succeed in discovering it with your help. To this end you must get a Moor to translate the document for you and send me the translation in a certified letter, mentioning the matter to no one, unless it be your wife, whom I know to be a person of discretion.
"Forgive my not having written to you in all these years, but you know how
busy a life I lead. Your aunt continues to remember you in her prayers
every night. I hope you are better of the affection of the stomach from
which you were suffering in 1806, and remain your affectionate
uncle-in-law,
"MATIAS DE QUESADA.
"UGIJAR, January 15, 1821.
"P.S. - Regards to Pepa, and tell me when you write if you have any
children."
Having written this letter, the distinguished jurisconsult bent his steps
toward the kitchen, where his wife was engaged in knitting and minding
the olla, and throwing into her lap the four golden coins he had received
from Juan Gomez, he said to her, in a harsh, cross voice:
"There, Encarnacion, buy more wheat; it is going to rise in price during
the dear months; and see to it that you get good measure. Get my breakfast
ready while I go post this letter for Seville, inquiring the price of
barley. Let the egg be well done and don't let the chocolate be muddy, as
it usually is."
The lawyer's wife answered not a word, but went on with her knitting, like
an automaton.
V
Two weeks later, on a beautiful day in January, a day such as is to be
seen only in the north of Africa and the south of Europe, the
Chapel-master of the cathedral of Ceuta was enjoying the sunshine on the
roof of his two-story house, with the tranquillity of mind proper to one
who had played the organ at high mass and had afterward eaten a pound of
anchovies, another of meat, and another of bread, and drank the
corresponding quantity of Tarifa wine.
The worthy musician, who was as fat as a hog and as red as a beet, was
slowly digesting his breakfast, while his lethargic gaze slowly wandered
over the magnificent panorama of the Mediterranean, the Straits of
Gibraltar, the accursed rock from which they take their name, the
neighboring peaks of Anghera and Benzu, and the distant snows of the
Lesser Atlas when he heard hasty steps on the stairs and his wife's
silvery voice crying joyfully:
"Bonifacio ! Bonifacio ! A letter from your uncle ! And a heavy letter, too !"
"Well," answered the Chapel-master, turning around like a geographical
sphere or globe on the point on which his rotund personality rested on the
seat, "what saint can have put it into my uncle's head to remember me ? I
have been living for fifteen years in this country usurped from Mohammed,
and this is the first time that Abencerrage has written to me, although I
have written to him a hundred times. Doubtless he wants me to render him
some service."
So saying, he opened the epistle, contriving so that the Pepa of the
postscript should not be able to read its contents, and the yellow
parchment, noisily unfolding itself, greeted their eyes.
"What has he sent us ?" asked his wife, a native of Cadiz, and a blonde,
attractive and fresh-looking, notwithstanding her forty summers.
"Don't be inquisitive, Pepita. I will tell you what is in the letter, if I
think you ought to know, as soon as I have read it. I have warned you a
thousand times to respect my letters."
"A proper precaution for a libertine like you ! At any rate be quick, and
let us see if I may know what that large paper is that your uncle has sent
you. It looks like a bank-note from the other world."
While his wife was making these and other observations, the musician
finished reading the letter, whose contents surprised him so greatly that
he rose to his feet without the slightest effort.
Dissimulation was so habitual with him, however, that he was able to say,
in a natural tone of voice:
"What nonsense ! The wretched man is no doubt already in his dotage ! Would
you believe that he sends me this leaf from a Hebrew Bible, in order that
I may look for some Jew who will buy it, the foolish creature supposing
that he will get a fortune for it. At the same time," he added, to change
the conversation, putting the letter and the parchment into his pocket,
"at the same time, he asks me with much interest if we have any children."
"He has none himself," cried Pepita quickly. "No doubt he intends to leave
us something."
"It is more likely the miserly fellow thinks of our leaving him something.
But hark, it is striking eleven. It is time for me to go tune the organ
for vespers. I must go now. Listen, my treasure; let dinner be ready by
one, and don't forget to put a couple of good potatoes into the pot. Have
we any children ! I am ashamed to tell him we have none. See, Pepa," said
the musician, after a moment, having in mind, no doubt, the Arabic
document, "if my uncle should make me his heir, or if I should ever grow
rich by any other means, I swear that I will take you to the Plaza of San
Antonio in Cadiz to live, and I will buy you more jewels than Our Lady of
Sorrows of Granada has. So good-bye for a while, my pigeon."
And, pinching his wife's dimpled chin, he took his hat and turned his
steps not in the direction of the cathedral, but in that of the poor
quarter of the town in which the Moorish citizens of Ceuta for the most
part live.
VI
In one of the narrowest streets of this quarter, seated on the floor or
rather on his heels, at the door of a very modest but very neat
whitewashed house, smoking a clay pipe, was a Moor of some thirty-five or
forty years of age, a dealer in eggs and chickens, which the free peasants
of Sierra Bullones and Sierra Bermeja brought to him to the gates of
Ceuta, and which he sold either in his own house or at the market, with a
profit of a hundred per cent. He wore a white woollen chivala and a black
woollen, hooded Arab cloak, and was called by the Spaniards, Manos-gordas,
and by the Moors, Admet-Ben-Carime-el-Abdoun.
When the Moor saw the Chapel-master approaching, he rose and advanced to
meet him, making deep salaams at every step, and when they were close
together, he said cautiously:
"You want a little Moorish girl ? I bring tomorrow little dark girl of
twelve"
"My wife wants no more Moorish servants," answered the musician stiffly.
Manos-gordas began to laugh.
"Besides," continued Don Bonifacio, "your infernal little Moorish girls
are very dirty."
"Wash !" responded the Moor, extending his arms crosswise and inclining his
head to one side.
"I tell you I want no Moorish girls," said Don Bonifacio. "What I want
today is that you, who know so much that you are Interpreter of the
Fortress, should translate this document into Spanish for me."
Manos-gordas took the document, and at the first glance murmured:
"It is Moor "
"Of course, it is in Arabic. But I want to know what it says, and if you
do not deceive me I will give you a handsome present when the business
which I am about to entrust you with is concluded."
Meantime Admet-Ben-Carime glanced his eye over the document, turning very
pale as he did so.
"You see that it concerns a great treasure ?" the Chapel-master
half-affirmed, half-asked.
"Me think so," stammered the Mohammedan.
"What do you mean by saying you think so ? Your very confusion tells
plainly that it is so."
"Pardon," replied Manos-gordas, a cold sweat breaking out over his body.
"Here words modern Arabic I understand. Here words ancient, or classic
Arabic. I no understand."
"Here words modern Arabic I understand. Here words ancient, or classic
Arabic. I no understand."
"What do the words that you understand signify ?"
"They signify GOLD, they signify PEARLS, they signify CURSE OF ALA. But I
no understand meaning, explanations, or signs. Must see the Dervish of
Anghera, wise man and translate all. I take parchment to day and bring
parchment tomorrow, and deceive not nor rob Senor Tudela. Moor swear."
Saying which he clasped his hands together, and, raising them to his lips,
kissed them fervently.
Don Bonifacio reflected; he knew that in order to decipher the meaning of
this document he should be obliged to take some Moor into his confidence,
and there was none with whom he was so well acquainted and who was so well
disposed to him as Manos-gordas; he consented, therefore, to confide the
manuscript to him, making him swear repeatedly that he would return on the
following day from Anghera with the translation, and swearing to the Moor
on his side that he would give him at least a hundred dollars when the
treasure should be discovered.
The Mussulman and the Christian then separated, and the latter directed
his steps, not to his own house, nor to the cathedral, but to the office
of a friend of his, where he wrote the following letter:
"Senor Don Matias de Quesada y Sanchez, Alpujarra, Ugijar.
"MY DEAREST UNCLE,
Thanks be to God that we have at last received news of you and of Aunt Encarnacion, and as good news as Josefa and I could desire. We, my dear uncle, although younger than you and my aunt, are full of ailments and burdened with children, who will soon be left orphans and compelled to beg for their bread.
Thanks be to God that we have at last received news of you and of Aunt Encarnacion, and as good news as Josefa and I could desire. We, my dear uncle, although younger than you and my aunt, are full of ailments and burdened with children, who will soon be left orphans and compelled to beg for their bread.
"Whoever told you that the document you sent me bore any reference to a
treasure deceived you. I have had it translated by a competent person, and
it turns out to be a string of blasphemies against our Lord Jesus Christ,
the Holy Virgin, and the Saints, written in Arabic verses, by a Moorish
dog of the Marquisate of El Cenet, during the rebellion of Aben-Humeya.
In view of its sacrilegious nature, and by the advice of the Senor
Penitentiary, I have just burned this impious testimony to Mohammedan
perversity.
"Remembrances to my aunt; Josefa desires to be remembered to you both; she
is now for the tenth time in an interesting condition, and your nephew,
who is reduced to skin and bone by the wretched affection of the stomach,
which you will remember, begs that you will send him some assistance.
"BONIFACIO.
"CEUTA, January 29, 1821."
VII
While the Chapel-master was writing and posting this letter,
Admet-el-Abdoun was gathering together in a bundle all his wearing apparel
and household belongings, consisting of three old hooded mantles, two
cloaks of goat's wool, a mortar for grinding alcazuz, an iron lamp, and a
copper skillet full of pesetas, which he dug up from a corner of the
little yard of his house. He loaded with all this his one wife, slave,
odalisque, or whatever she might be, a woman uglier than an unexpected
piece of bad news, and filthier than her husband's conscience, and issued
forth from Ceuta, telling the soldier on guard at the gate opening on the
Moorish country that they were going to Fez for change of air, by the
advice of a veterinary; and as from that day, now more than sixty years
ago, to this no one in Ceuta or its neighborhood has ever again seen
Manos-gordas, it is obvious that Don Bonifacio Tudela y Gonzalez had not
the satisfaction of receiving from his hands the translation of the
document, either on the following, or on any other day during the
remainder of his existence; which, indeed, cannot have been very long,
since, according to reliable information, it appears that his adored
Pepita took to herself, after his death, another husband, an Asturian
drum-major residing in Marbella, whom she presented with four children,
beautiful as the sun, and that she was again a widow at the time of the
death of the king, at which epoch she gained, by competition in Malaga,
the title of gossip and the position of matron in the custom-house.
And now let us follow Manos-gordas and learn what became of him and of the
mysterious document.
VII
Admet-ben-Carime-el-Abdoun breathed freely, and even danced a few steps
for joy, without dancing off his ill-fastened slippers, however, as soon
as he found himself outside the massive walls of the Spanish fortress and
with all Africa before him.
For Africa, for a true African like Manos-gordas, is the land of absolute
liberty; of a liberty anterior and superior to all human constitutions and
institutions; of a liberty resembling that enjoyed by the wild rabbits and
other wild animals of the mountain, the valley, or the desert.
By this I mean to say that Africa is the paradise of evil-doers, the safe
asylum, the neutral ground of both men and beasts, protected here by the
intense heat and the vast extent of the deserts.
As for the sultans, kings, and beys who fancy they rule here, and the authorities and soldiers who represent them, it may be said that they are for such subjects what the hunter is for the hare or for the stag a misadventure which one in a hundred may chance to meet with, and which may or may not result fatally; if he who meets it dies, he is remembered on the anniversary of his death; and if he does not die, he takes himself off to a sufficient distance from the scene of his mishap and no more is thought about the matter. With this digression we will now resume the thread of our story.
As for the sultans, kings, and beys who fancy they rule here, and the authorities and soldiers who represent them, it may be said that they are for such subjects what the hunter is for the hare or for the stag a misadventure which one in a hundred may chance to meet with, and which may or may not result fatally; if he who meets it dies, he is remembered on the anniversary of his death; and if he does not die, he takes himself off to a sufficient distance from the scene of his mishap and no more is thought about the matter. With this digression we will now resume the thread of our story.
"This way, Zama !" cried the Moor to his weary consort, as if he were
calling to a beast of burden.
And instead of turning eastward, that is to say toward the gap of Anghera,
in quest of the holy sage, in accordance with his promise to Don
Bonifacio, he proceeded southward along a ravine overgrown with wild
brambles and forest trees which soon brought him to the Tetuan road; that
is to say, to the indistinct footpath which, following the indentations of
the coast, leads to Cape Negro by the valley of the Tarajar, the valley of
the Castillejos, Mount Negro, and the lakes of Azmir River, names which
are now heard by every true Spaniard with love and veneration, but which
at the time of our story had not yet been pronounced either in Spain or in
any other part of the civilized world.
When Ben-Carime and Zama had reached the little valley of the Tarajar,
they sat down to rest for a while at the edge of the rivulet which, rising
in the heights of Sierra Bullones, runs through it, and in this wild and
secluded spot, that seemed as if it had come fresh from the Creator's hand
and had never yet been trod by the foot of man, looking out on the
solitary ocean, whose waters were untracked save, on an occasional
moonlight night, by some pirate caravel or government vessel sent from
Europe in pursuit of it, the Moorish woman proceeded to make her toilet,
performing her ablutions in the stream, and the Moor unfolded the
manuscript and read it again, manifesting no less emotion than he had
shown on the previous occasion.
The contents of the Arabian manuscript were as follows:
"May the benediction of Allah rest on all good men who read these lines !
"There is no glory but the glory of Allah, whose prophet and messenger Mohammed was and is, in the hearts of the faithful.
"May those who rob the house of him who is at the wars, or in exile, be
accursed of Allah and of Mohammed, and die eaten up by beetles and
cockroaches !
"Blessed be Allah, who created these and other vermin to devour the
wicked !
"I am the caid Hassan-ben-Jussef, the servant of Allah, although I am
miscalled Don Rodrigo de Acuna by the successors of the Christian dogs
who, by force and in violation of solemn compact, baptized, with a broom
of hyssop, my ill-fated ancestors, together with many other Islamites of
these kingdoms.
"I am a captain, serving under the banner of him whose lawful title,
since the death of Aben-Humaya, is King of Andalusia,
Muley-Abdallah-Mahamud-Aben-Aboo, who does not now sit on the throne of
Granada because of the treachery and cowardice with which the Moors of
Valencia broke their oaths and compacts, failing to rise with the Moors of
Granada against the common enemy: but they will receive their reward from
Allah, and if we are conquered, they, too, will be conquered and in the
end expelled from Spain, without the merit of having fought to the last on
the field of honor in defence of their rights; and if we are the
conquerors we will cut off their heads and throw them to the swine.
"I am, in conclusion, the lord of this tower and of all the land
surrounding it, westward to the ravine of the Fox and eastward to the
ravine of the Asparagus, so called from the luxuriant growth and
exquisite flavor of the asparagus cultivated there by my grandfather,
Sidi-Jussef-ben-Jussuf.
"Things are going badly with us. Since the coming of the base-born Don
Juan of Austria (whom may Allah confound !) to fight against the faithful,
we have foreseen that, for the present, we shall be defeated, although in
the course of years or of centuries another Prince of the blood of the
Prophet may recover the throne of Granada which for seven hundred years
was in the possession of the Moors, and which will be theirs again when
Allah wills it, by the same right by which it was formerly possessed by
the Goths and Vandals, and before that by the Romans, and before that by
those other Africans, the Carthaginians by the right of conquest. But
I know, as I have said, that, for the present, things are going badly with
us, and that I must very soon depart for Morocco, taking with me my
forty-three sons; that is to say, unless the Austrians capture me in the
coming battle and hang me on a tree, as I would hang all of them, if it
were in my power to do so.
"Well, then, when I depart from this tower to engage in the last and the
decisive campaign, I leave hidden here, in a place which no one can
discover without coming across this manuscript, all my gold, all my
silver, all my pearls, my family treasures, the possessions of my fathers,
of myself, and of my heirs; the fortune of which I am lord and master by
human and divine right, as the bird is of its feathers, or the child of
the teeth he cuts with suffering, or as every mortal is of the bad humors,
cancerous or leprous, which he may inherit from his ancestors.
"Stay thy hand, then, oh thou, Moor, Christian, or Jew, who, in tearing
down this, my dwelling, mayest discover and read these lines which I
am now writing ! Stay thy hand and respect the treasure-house of thy
fellow-mortal ! Touch not his estate ! Take not possession of that which
belongs to another ! Here there is none of the public wealth, nothing
belonging to the exchequer, nothing belonging to the state. The gold in
the mine may belong of right to him who discovers it, and a part of it to
the king of the country; but gold melted down and stamped money, coin
belongs to its owner and to no one but its owner. Rob me not, therefore,
evil man ! Rob not my descendants who will come, on the day appointed, to
take possession of their inheritance. And if thou shouldst, without evil
intent, and by chance discover my treasure, I counsel thee to make public
proclamation, calling on and notifying the circumstance to the heirs of
Hassan-ben-Jussef; for it is not just to keep that which has been found
when it has a lawful owner.
"If thou doest not this, be accursed, with the curse of Allah, and with my
curse ! And mayest thou be struck dead by lightning ! And may each coin of
my money and each pearl of my treasure become a scorpion in thy hands ! And
may thy children die of leprosy, may their fingers rot and drop off, so
that they may not have even the pleasure of scratching themselves ! And may
the woman thou lovest love thy slave and betray thee for him. And may thy
eldest daughter leave thy house secretly with a Jew ! And mayest thou be
impaled upon a stake, and suspended on high, exposed to the public gaze,
until by the weight of thy body the stake pierce thy crown and thou fall
parted asunder on the ground like a loathsome toad cut in twain by the
hoe!
"Now thou knowest what I would have thee know, and let all men know it,
and blessed be Allah who is Allah !
"Tower of Zoraya, in Aldeire, in El Cenet, On the fifteenth day of the
month of Saphar, Of the year of the Hegira 968.
"HASSEN-BEN-JUSSEF."
IX
Manos-gordas was profoundly impressed by a second reading of this
document; not because of the moral maxims or the terrible curses it
contained, for the rascal had lost his faith both in Allah and in
Mohammed, through his frequent intercourse with the Christians and the
Jews of Tetuan and Ceuta, who naturally scoffed at the Koran, but because
he believed that his face, his accent, and some other personal
peculiarities of his forbade his going to Spain, where he would find
himself exposed to certain death should any Christian man or woman
discover him to be an enemy to the Virgin Mary.
"Besides, what aid" (in the opinion of Manos-gordas) "could a foreigner, a
Mohammedan, a semi-barbarian, expect from the laws or the authorities of
Spain, in acquiring possession of the Tower of Zoraya for the purpose of
making excavations there, or what protection in retaining possession of
the treasure when he should have discovered it, or even of his life ? There
is no help for it," was the conclusion to which he came, after much
reflection. "I must trust the secret to the renegade Ben-Munuza. He is a
Spaniard, and his companionship will protect me from danger in that
country. But as there does not exist under the canopy of heaven a wickeder
man than this same renegade, it will not be amiss to take some
precautions."
And, as a result of his reflections, he took from his pocket writing
materials, wrote a letter, and inclosed it in an envelope, which he sealed
with a bit of moistened bread, and this done, he burst into a sardonic
laugh.
He then looked at his wife, who was still engaged in removing the filth of
an entire year from her person, at the expense of the material and moral
cleanliness of the poor rivulet, and having attracted her attention by a
whistle, he deigned to address her in these terms:
"Sit down here beside me, fig-face, and listen to what I am going to say.
You can afterward finish washing yourself and well you need it and
perhaps I may then think you worthy of something better than the daily
drubbing by which I show my affection for you. But for the present,
brazen face, leave off your grimaces, and listen well to what I am going to
tell you."
The Moorish woman, who after her toilet looked younger and more artistic,
though no less ugly than before, licked her lips like a cat, fixed the two
carbuncles that served her for eyes on Manos-gordas, and said, showing her
broad white teeth, that bore no resemblance to those of a human being:
"Speak, my lord, your slave desires only to serve you."
Manos-gordas continued:
"If, in the future, any misfortune should happen to me, or if I should
suddenly disappear without taking leave of you, or if, after taking leave
of you, you should hear nothing from me within six weeks' time, make your
way back to Ceuta and put this letter in the post. Do you understand fully
what I have said, monkey-face ?"
Zama burst into tears and exclaimed:
"Admet, do you intend to abandon me ?"
"Don't be an ass, woman !" answered the Moor. "Who is talking of such a
thing now ? You know very well that you please me and that you are useful
to me. The question now is whether you have understood my charge
perfectly."
"Give it here !" said the Moorish woman, taking the letter and placing it
in her dark-skinned bosom, next her heart. "If any evil should happen to
you, this letter shall be placed in the post at Ceuta, though I should
drop dead the moment after."
Aben-Carime smiled with a human smile when he heard these words, and
deigned to let his eyes rest upon his wife as if she were a human being.
X
The Moorish couple must have slept soundly and sweetly among the thickets
on the roadside that night, for it was fully nine o'clock on the following
morning when they reached the foot of Cape Negro.
At that place there is a village of Arab shepherds and husbandmen, called
Medick, consisting of a few huts, a morabito or Mohammedan hermitage, and
a well of fresh water, with its curb-stone and its copper bucket, like the
wells we see represented in certain biblical scenes.
At this hour the village was completely deserted, its inhabitants having
betaken themselves, with their cattle and their implements of labor, to
the neighboring hills and glens.
"Wait for me here," said Manos-gordas to his wife. "I am going in quest of
Ben-Munuza, who at this hour is probably ploughing his fields on the other
side of yonder hill."
"Ben-Munuza !" exclaimed Zama, with a look of terror; "the renegade of whom
you spoke to me ?"
"Make your mind easy," returned Manos-gordas. "I have the upper hand now.
In a few hours I shall be back and you will see him following me like a
dog. This is his cabin. Wait for us inside, and make us a good mess of
alcazus, with the maize and the butter you will find at hand. You know I
like it well cooked. Ah, I forgot. If I should not be back before
nightfall, ascend the hill, crossover to the other side, and if you do not
find me there, or if you should find my dead body, return to Ceuta and
post this letter. Another thing: if you should find me dead, search my
clothing for this parchment; if you do not find it upon me, you will know
that Ben-Munuza has robbed me of it; in which case proceed from Ceuta to
Tetuan and denounce him as a thief and an assassin to the authorities.
That is all I have to tell you. Farewell !"
The Moorish woman wept bitterly as Manos-gordas took the path that led to
the summit of the neighboring hill.
XI
On reaching the other side of the hill Manos-gordas descried in a glen, a
short distance off, a corpulent Moor dressed in white, ploughing the black
earth with the help of a fine yoke of oxen, in patriarchal fashion. This
man, who seemed a statue of Peace carved in marble, was the morose and
dreaded renegade, Ben-Munuza, the details of whose story would make the
reader shudder with horror, if he were to hear them.
Suffice it for the present to say that he was some forty years old, that
he was active, vigorous, and robust, and that he was of a gloomy cast of
countenance, although his eyes were blue as the sky, and his beard yellow
as the African sunlight, which had bronzed his originally fair complexion.
"Good-morning, Manos-gordas !" cried the renegade, as soon as he perceived
the Moor.
And his voice expressed the melancholy pleasure the exile feels in a
foreign land when he meets some one with whom he can converse in his
native tongue.
"Good-morning, Juan Falgueira !" responded Ben-Carime, in ironical accents.
As he heard this name the renegade trembled from head to foot, and seizing
the iron bar of the plough prepared to defend himself.
"What name is that you have just pronounced ?" he said, advancing
threateningly toward Manos-gordas.
The latter awaited his approach, laughing, and answered in Arabic, with a
courage which no one would have supposed him to possess:
"I have pronounced your real name; the name you bore in Spain when you
were a Christian, and which I learned when I was in Oran three years ago."
"In Oran ?"
"Yes, in Oran. What is there extraordinary in that ? You had come from Oran
to Morocco; I went to Oran to buy hens. I inquired there concerning your
history, describing your appearance, and some Spaniards living there
related it to me. I learned that you were a Galician, that your name was
Juan Falgueira, and that you had escaped from the prison of Granada, on
the eve of the day appointed for your execution, for having robbed and
murdered, fifteen years ago, a party of gentlemen, whom you were serving
in the capacity of muleteer. Do you still doubt that I know who you are ?"
"Tell me, my soul," responded the renegade, in a hollow voice, looking
cautiously around, "have you related this story to any of the Moors ? Does
any one but yourself in this accursed land know it ? Because the fact is, I
want to live in peace, without having any one or anything to remind me of
that fatal deed which I have well expiated. I am a poor man. I have
neither family, nor country, nor language, nor even the God who made me
left to me. I live among enemies, with no other wealth than these oxen and
these fields, bought by the fruit of ten years' sweat and toil.
Consequently, you do very wrong to come and tell me "
"Hold !" cried Manos-gordas, greatly alarmed. "Don't cast those wolfish
glances at me, for I come to do you a great service, and not to vex you
needlessly. I have told your unfortunate story to no one. What for ? Any
secret may be a treasure, which he who tells gives away. There are,
however, occasions in which an EXCHANGE OF SECRETS may be made with
profit. For instance, I am going to tell you an important secret of mine,
which will serve as security for yours, and which will oblige us to be
friends for the rest of our lives."
"I am listening; go on," responded the renegade quietly.
Aben-Carime then read aloud the Arabic document, which Juan Falgueira
listened to without moving a muscle of his still angry countenance.
The Moor seeing this, in order to dispel his distrust, disclosed to him
the fact that he had stolen the paper he had just read from a Christian in
Ceuta.
The Spaniard smiled slightly to think how great must be the huckster's
fear of him to cause him voluntarily to reveal to him his theft, and poor
Manos-gordas, encouraged by Ben-Munuza's smile, proceeded to disclose his
plans, in the following terms:
"I take it for granted that you understand perfectly well the importance
of this document and the reason of my reading it to you. I know not where
the Tower of Zoraya, nor Aldeire, nor El Cenet is, nor do I know how to go
to Spain, nor should I be able to find my way through that country if I
were there; besides which, the people would kill me for not being a
Christian, or at least they would despoil me of the treasure after I had
found it, if not before. For all these reasons, I require that a trusty
and loyal Spaniard should accompany me, a man whose life shall be in my
power, and whom I can send to the gallows with half a word; a man, in
short like you, Juan Falgueira, who, after all, have gained nothing by
robbing and murdering, since you are now toiling here like a donkey, when
with the millions I am going to procure you, you can go to America, to
France, or to India, and enjoy yourself, and live in luxury, and rise in
time perhaps to be king. What do you think of my plan ?"
"That it is well put together, like the work of a Moor," responded
Ben-Munuza, in whose nervous hands, clasped behind his back, the iron bar
swung back and forth like a tiger's tail.
Manos-gordas smiled with satisfaction, thinking that his proposition was
already accepted.
"But," added the sombre Galician, "there is one thing you have not
considered."
"And what is that ?" asked Ben-Carime, throwing back his head with a
comical expression, and fixing his eyes on vacancy, like one who is
prepared to hear some trivial and easily answered objection.
"You have not considered that I should be an unmitigated fool if I were to
accompany you to Spain to put you in possession of half a treasure,
relying upon your putting me in possession of the other half. I say this
because you would only have to say half a word the day we arrived at
Aldeire, and you thought yourself free from danger, to rid yourself of my
company and avoid giving me my half of the treasure, after it was found.
In truth, you are not the clever man you imagine yourself to be, but only
a simpleton deserving of pity, who have deliberately walked into a trap
from which there is no escape, in telling me where this great treasure is
to be found, and telling me at the same time that you know my history, and
that if I were to accompany you to Spain you would there be absolute
master of my life. And what need, then, have I of you ? What need have I of
your help to go and take possession of the entire treasure myself ? What
need have I of you in the world at all ? Who are you, now that you have
read me that document, now that I can take it from you ?"
"What are you saying ?" cried Manos-gordas, who all at once felt a chill,
like that of death, strike to the marrow of his bones.
"I am saying nothing. Take that !" replied Juan Falgueira, dealing
Ben-Carime a tremendous blow on the head with the iron bar. The Moor
rolled over on the ground, the blood gushing from his eyes, nose, and
mouth, without uttering a single sound.
The unfortunate man was dead.
XII
Three or four weeks after the death of Manos-gordas, somewhere about the
20th of February, 1821, it was snowing, if it ever were to snow, in the
town of Aldeire, and throughout the beautiful Andalusian sierra to which
the snow gives existence, as it were, and a name.
It was Carnival Sunday, and the church bell was for the fourth time
summoning to mass with its thin, clear tones, like those of a child, the
shivering Christians of this parish (too near to heaven for their
comfort), who found it difficult, on so raw and inclement a day, to bring
themselves to leave their beds or to move away from the fire, saying,
perhaps, in excuse for their not doing so, that on the three days before
Ash-Wednesday worship should be rendered not to God, but to the devil.
Some such excuse as this, at least, was given by Uncle Juan Gomez in
answer to the arguments with which his pious wife, our friend, Dame
Torcuata, tried to persuade him to give up drinking brandy and eating
biscuits, and accompany her, instead, to mass, like a good Christian,
regardless of the criticisms of the schoolmaster or the other electors of
the liberal party. And the dispute was beginning to grow warm, when
suddenly Genaro, his honor's head shepherd, entered the kitchen, and
taking off his hat, and scratching his head with the same movement, said:
"God give us good-day, Senor Juan and Senora Torcuata! You must have
guessed already that something has happened up above to bring me down here
on a day like this, it not being my Sunday for going to hear mass. I hope
you are both well !"
"There ! there ! I'll wait no longer!" cried the Alcalde's wife,
impatiently, folding her mantilla over her breast. "It was decreed that
you were not to hear mass today. You have drink enough there, and
conversation enough for the whole day, discussing the question as to
whether the goats are with kid or whether the young rams are beginning to
get their horns. You will go to perdition, Juan, you will go to perdition,
if you don't soon make your peace with the church and give up the accursed
alcaldeship !"
When Dame Torcuata had departed, the Alcalde handed a biscuit and a glass
of brandy to the head shepherd, saying:
"Women's nonsense, Uncle Genaro ! Draw your chair up to the fire and tell
me what you have to say. What is going on up above there ?"
"Oh, a mere nothing ! Yesterday, Francisco, the goat-keeper, saw a man
dressed like a native of Malaga, with long trousers and a linen jacket,
and wrapped in a blanket, go into the cattle-yard you are making, from the
open side, and walk around the Moor's Tower, examining it and measuring
it, as if he were a master-builder. Francisco asked him what he was doing,
to which the stranger answered by asking in his turn who was the owner of
the tower, and Francisco saying that he was no less a person than the
Alcalde of the town, the stranger replied that he would speak with his
honor and explain his plans to him. Night soon fell, and as the man
pretended to be going away, the goat-herd went to his hut, which, as you
know, is but a short distance from the tower. Some two hours later the
same Francisco noticed that strange noises proceeded from the tower, in
which he also observed a light burning, all which terrified him so
greatly, that he did not even venture to go to my hut to tell me of what
he had seen and heard. This he did as soon as it was daylight, saying in
addition that the noises he had heard in the tower were kept up all night.
As I am an old man and have served my king and am not easily frightened, I
went at once to the Moor's Tower, accompanied by Francisco, who trembled
at every step he took, and we discovered the stranger, wrapped up in his
blanket, asleep in a little room on the ground floor where the plaster
still remains on the ceiling. I wakened the mysterious stranger and
reproved him for spending the night in a strange house without its owner's
permission, to which he answered that the building was not a house, but a
heap of ruins, where a poor wayfarer might very well take shelter on a
snowy night, and that he was ready to present himself before you and tell
you who he was and what his business and his plans were. I have brought
him with me, therefore, and he is now out in the yard with the goatherd,
waiting for your permission to enter."
"Let him come in," answered Uncle Hormiga, rising to his feet, greatly
disturbed, for the thought had presented itself to his mind at the head
shepherd's first words, that all this was closely connected with the
celebrated treasure, the hope of discovering which, by his own unaided
exertions, he had abandoned, a week before, after he had removed, without
result, several of the heaviest of the foundation stones.
XIII
Here, then, we have, face to face and alone, Uncle Juan Gomez and the
stranger.
"What is your name ?" the former asked the latter, with all the
imperiousness warranted by his exalted office, and without inviting him to
be seated.
"My name is Jaime Olot," responded the mysterious stranger.
"You do not speak like a native of this country. Are you English ?"
"I am a Catalan."
"Ah, a Catalan ! That may be. And what brings you to these parts ? And,
above all, what the devil were you doing yesterday measuring my tower ?"
"I will tell you. I am a miner by profession, and I have come to this
country, which is famous for its copper and silver mines, in search of
work. Yesterday afternoon, passing by the Moor's Tower, I saw that a wall
was being built with the stones that had been taken from it, and that it
would be necessary to tear down a great deal more of the building in order
to finish the wall. There is no one who can equal me in pulling down
buildings, whether by the use of tools or with hands only, for I have the
strength of an ox, and the idea occurred to me that I might be able to
make a contract with the owner of the tower to pull it down and dig up the
foundation stones."
Uncle Hormiga, with a wink of his little gray eyes, responded, dwelling
upon every word:
"Well, that arrangement does not suit me."
"I would do the work for very little almost nothing."
"Now it would suit me less than before."
The so-called Jaime Olot was puzzled not a little by the mysterious
answers of Uncle Juan Gomez, and he tried to get some clue to their
meaning from the expression of his face; but as he was unsuccessful in his
efforts to read the fox-like countenance of his honor, he added, with
feigned naturalness:
"It would not displease me, either, to repair a part of the old building
and to live there, cultivating the ground that you had intended for a
cattle-yard. I will buy from you, then, the Moor's Tower with the ground
around it."
"I do not wish to sell it," responded Uncle Hormiga.
"But I will pay you double what it is worth !" said the self-styled Catalan
emphatically.
"It would suit me now less than ever to sell it," replied the Andalusian,
with so crafty and insulting a look that his interlocutor took a step
backward, suddenly becoming conscious that he was treading on false
ground.
He reflected for a moment, therefore, and then raising his head with a
determined air, and clasping his hands behind his back, he said, with a
cynical laugh:
"So, then, you know that there is a TREASURE on that ground !"
Uncle Juan Gomez leaned over in his seat, and scanning the Catalan from
head to foot, exclaimed with a comical air:
"What vexes me is that you, too, should know it !"
"And it would vex you much more if I should tell you that I am the only
person who knows it with certainty."
"That is to say, that you know the precise spot in which the treasure is
buried ?"
"I know the precise spot, and it would not take me twenty-four hours to
disinter all the wealth that lies hidden there."
"According to that you have in your possession a certain document "
"Yes; I have a document of the time of the Moors, half a yard square, in
which all the necessary directions to find the treasure are given."
"And tell me, this document..."
"I do not carry it about with me, nor is there any reason why I should do
so, since I know it word for word by heart, both in Spanish and in Arabic.
Oh, I am not such a fool as ever to deliver myself up, bag and baggage,
to the enemy ! So that before coming to this country I concealed the
document where no one but myself will ever be able to find it."
"In that case there is no more to be said. Senor Jaime Olot, let us come
to an understanding, like two good friends," exclaimed the Alcalde, at the
same time pouring out a glass of brandy for the stranger.
"Let us come to an understanding !" repeated the stranger, taking a seat
without waiting for further permission, and drinking his brandy with
gusto.
"Tell me," continued Uncle Hormiga, "and tell me without lying, so that I
may learn to put faith in you "
"Ask what you wish; when it does not suit me to speak I shall be silent."
"Do you come from Madrid ?"
"No. It is twenty-five years since I was in the capital, for the first and
last time."
"Do you come from the Holy Land ?"
"No; that is not in my line."
"Are you acquainted with a lawyer of Ugijar, called Don Matias de Quesada ?"
"No; I hate lawyers and all people who live by the pen."
"Well, then, how did this document fall into your possession ?"
Jaime Olcot was silent.
"I like that ! I see you don't want to lie !" exclaimed the Alcalde. "But
there cannot be a doubt that Don Matias de Quesada cheated me as if I were
a Chinese, stealing from me two ounces in gold, and then selling that
document to some one in Melilla or Ceuta. And the fact is, although you
are not a Moor, you look as if you had lived in those countries."
"Don't fatigue yourself, or lose your time guessing further. I will set
your doubts at rest. This lawyer you speak of must have sent the
manuscript to a Spaniard in Ceuta, from whom it was stolen three weeks ago
by the Moor from whose possession it passed into mine."
"Ah ! now I see. He must have sent it to a nephew of his who is a musician
in the cathedral of that city one Bonafacio de Tudela."
"It is very likely."
"What a wretch that Don Matias is ! To cheat his gossip in this way ! But
see how chance has brought the document back to my hands again !"
"To mine, you would say," observed the stranger.
"To ours !" returned the Alcalde, again filling the glasses. "Why, then, we
are millionaires. We will divide the treasure equally between us, since
you cannot dig in that ground without my permission, nor can I find the
treasure without the help of the document which has fallen into your
possession. That is to say, that chance has made us brothers. From this
day forth you shall live in my house another glass and the instant we
have finished breakfast, we will begin to dig."
The conference had reached this point when Dame Torcuata returned from
mass. Her husband told her all that had passed, and presented to her Don
Jaime Olot. The good woman heard with as much fear as joy the news that
the treasure was on the eve of discovery, crossing herself repeatedly on
learning of the treachery and baseness of her gossip, Don Matias de
Quesada, and she looked with terror at the stranger, whose countenance
filled her with a presentiment of coming misfortune.
Knowing, however, that she must give this man his breakfast, she went into
the pantry to take from it the choicest articles it contained that is to
say, a tenderloin with pickle sauce, and a sausage of the last killing,
saying to herself, however, as she uncovered the jars:
"Time it is that the treasure should be discovered, for whether it is to
be found or not, it has already cost us the thirty-two dollars for the
famous cup of chocolate, the long-standing friendship of our gossip, Don
Matias, these fine slices of meat, that would have made so rich a dish,
dressed with peppers and tomatoes, in the month of August, and the having
so forbidding-looking a stranger as a guest. Accursed be treasures, and
mines, and the devils, and everything that is underground, excepting only
water and the faithful departed !"
XIV
While Dame Torcuata was making these reflections to herself, as she went,
with a pan in either hand, toward the fire, cries and hisses of women and
children resounded in the street, mingled with other voices in a lower
key, saying:
"Senor Alcalde ! Open the door! The city authorities are entering the town
with a troop of soldiers !"
Jaime Olot became yellower than wax when he heard these words, and
clasping his hands together, he said:
"Hide me, Senor Alcalde ! Otherwise we shall not find the treasure ! The
authorities have come in search of me !"
"In search of you ? And why so ? Are you a criminal ?"
"I knew it !" cried Aunt Torcuata. "From that gloomy face no good could
come. All this is the doing of Lucifer !"
"Quick ! quick !" resumed the stranger. Take me out by the back door !"
"Very good, but first give me directions where to find the treasure," said Uncle Hormiga.
"Senor Alcalde !" the cry was repeated outside the door, "open ! The town is
surrounded ! It seems it is that man who has been shut up with you for the
last hour they are in search of !"
"Open to the authorities !" an imperious voice now cried, accompanied by a
loud knocking at the door.
"There is no help for it !" said the Alcalde, going to open the door, while
the stranger tried to escape into the yard by the other door.
But the head shepherd and the goat-herd, who were on the alert, cut off
his egress, and they and the soldiers, who had now also entered the room,
seized and bound him securely, although the renegade displayed in the
struggle the strength and agility of a tiger.
The constable of the court, who had under his command a clerk and twenty
foot-soldiers, meantime told the Alcalde the causes of and reasons for
this noisy arrest.
"This man," he said, "with whom you have been shut up I don't know why
talking of I don't know what is the famous Galician, Juan Falgueira, who,
fifteen years ago, robbed and murdered a party of gentlemen, whose
muleteer he was, in a certain hamlet of Granada, and who escaped from the
chapel on the eve of the day appointed for his execution, dressed in the
habit of the friar who was administering to him the consolations of
religion, and whom he left there half-strangled. The king himself whom
Heaven preserve received, a fortnight ago, a letter from Ceuta, signed by
a Moor named Manos-gordas, saying that Juan Falgueira, after long
residence in Oran and other points in Africa, was about to embark for
Spain, and that it would be an easy matter to seize him in Aldeire in El
Cenet, where it was his intention to purchase a Moorish tower and to
devote himself to mining. At the same time a communication was received by
the government from the Spanish Consul in Tetuan, stating that a Moorish
woman called Zama had presented herself before him to make complaint
against the Spanish renegade, Ben-Manuza, formerly called Juan Falgueira,
who had just sailed for Spain, after having assassinated the Moor,
Manos-gordas, the complainant's husband, and robbed him of a certain
precious document. For all which reasons, and chiefly on account of the
attempt against the life of the friar in the chapel, His Majesty the King
strongly urged upon the authorities of Granada the arrest of the criminal
and his immediate execution in that city."
Let the reader picture to himself the terror and astonishment with which
this narration was listened to by all present, as well as the despair of
Uncle Hormiga, who could not now doubt that the document was in the
possession of this man condemned to death.
The avaricious Alcalde, then, at the risk of compromising himself still
further, called aside Juan Falgueira and held a whispered conversation
with him, having previously informed the assemblage that he was going to
try to prevail upon the renegade to confess his crime before God and men.
What passed between the two PARTNERS, however, was really what follows:
"Gossip !" said Uncle Hormiga, "not Heaven itself could now save you ! But
you must feel that it would be a pity that that document should be lost.
Tell me where you have hidden it."
"Gossip !" responded the Galician, "with that document, or, in other words,
with the treasure it represents, I intend to purchase my pardon. Procure
for me the royal favor, and I will deliver the document to you; but for
the present I shall offer it to the judges to bribe them to declare my
sentence null and void by prescription."
"Gossip !" replied Uncle Hormiga, "you are a wise man, and I shall be glad
if you succeed in your purpose. But if you fail, for God's sake do not
carry to the tomb a secret which will profit no one !"
"Be certain, I shall take it with me !" answered Juan Falgueira. "I must
have my revenge upon the world in some way."
"Let us proceed !" here cried the constable, putting an end to this strange
conference.
And the condemned man, being chained and handcuffed, the officers of
justice and the soldiers proceeded with him in the direction of the city
of Guadix, whence they were to conduct him to Granada.
"The devil! the devil!" the wife of Uncle Hormiga Juan Gomez kept
repeating to herself for an hour afterward, as she returned the
tenderloin and the sausage to their respective jars. "My curse upon
all treasures past, present, and to come !"
XV
Needless to say that Uncle Hormiga found no means of procuring Juan
Falgueira's pardon, nor did the judges condescend to listen seriously to
the offers which the latter made them of delivering to them a treasure on
condition that they should relinquish the prosecution against him; nor did
the terrible Galician consent to disclose the hiding-place of the document
nor the where abouts of the treasure to the bold Alcalde of Aldeire who,
with this hope, had the face to visit him in the chapel in the prison of
Granada.
Juan Falgueira, then, was hanged on the Friday preceding Good Friday, in
the Paseo del Triumfo, and Uncle Hormiga, on his return to Aldeire, on
Palm Sunday, fell ill with typhoid fever, the disease running its course
so quickly that on Wednesday of Holy Week he confessed himself and made
his will and expired on the morning of Easter Saturday.
But before his death he wrote a letter to Don Matias de Quesada,
reproaching him with his treachery and dishonesty (which had caused the
deaths of three persons), and forgiving him like a Christian, on condition
that he should return to Dame Torcuata the thirty-two dollars for the cup
of chocolate.
This dreadful letter reached Ugijar simultaneously with the news of the
death of Uncle Juan Gomez, both which events, coming together, affected
the old lawyer to such a degree that he never recovered his spirits again,
and he died shortly afterward, having written in his last hour a terrible
letter, full of reproaches and maledictions, to his nephew, the
Chapel-master of Ceuta, accusing him of having deceived and robbed him,
and of being the cause of his death.
To the reading of this just and tremendous accusation was due, it is said,
the stroke of apoplexy that sent Don Bonifacio to the tomb.
So that the suspicion, merely, of the existence of a hidden treasure was
the cause of five deaths, and of many other misfortunes, matters remaining
in the end as hidden and mysterious as they were in the beginning, since
Dame Torcuata, who was the only person in the world who knew the history
of the fatal document, took good care never to mention it there after in
the whole course of her life, thinking, as she did, that it had all been
the work of the devil, and the necessary consequence of her husband's
dealings with the enemies of the Church and the Throne.