Such had been his life for those long years; such had been the
continuous source of his sufferings, of which he had kept the secret
so well; such had been the existence of this man, who had no action
to be ashamed of, and whom a great injustice compelled to hide away
from himself!
But at length the day arrived when there could no longer remain a
doubt as to the affection which Manoel bore to Minha, when he could
see that a year would not go by before he was asked to give his
consent to her marriage, and after a short delay he no longer
hesitated to proceed in the matter.
A letter from him, addressed to Judge Ribeiro, acquainted the chief
justice with the secret of the existence of Joam Dacosta, with the
name under which he was concealed, with the place where he lived with
his family, and at the same time with his formal intention of
delivering himself up to justice, and taking steps to procure the
revision of the proceedings, which would either result in his
rehabilitation or in the execution of the iniquitous judgment
delivered at Villa Rica.
What were the feelings which agitated the heart of the worthy
magistrate? We can easily divine them. It was no longer to the
advocate that the accused applied; it was to the chief justice of the
province that the convict appealed. Joam Dacosta gave himself over to
him entirely, and did not even ask him to keep the secret.
Judge Ribeiro was at first troubled about this unexpected revelation,
but he soon recovered himself, and scrupulously considered the duties
which the position imposed on him. It was his place to pursue
criminals, and here was one who delivered himself into his hands.
This criminal, it was true, he had defended; he had never doubted but
that he had been unjustly condemned; his joy had been extreme when he
saw him escape by flight from the last penalty; he had even
instigated and facilitated his flight! But what the advocate had done
in the past could the magistrate do in the present?
“Well, yes!” had the judge said, “my conscience tells me not to
abandon this just man. The step he is taking is a fresh proof of his
innocence, a moral proof, even if he brings me others, which may be
the most convincing of all! No! I will not abandon him!”
From this day forward a secret correspondence took place between the
magistrate and Joam Dacosta. Ribeiro at the outset cautioned his
client against compromising himself by any imprudence. He had again
to work up the matter, again to read over the papers, again to look
through the inquiries. He had to find out if any new facts had come
to light in the diamond province referring to so serious a case. Had
any of the accomplices of the crime, of the smugglers who had
attacked the convoy, been arrested since the attempt? Had any
confessions or half-confessions been brought forward? Joam Dacosta
had done nothing but protest his innocence from the very first. But
that was not enough, and Judge Ribeiro was desirous of finding in the
case itself the clue to the real culprit.
Joam Dacosta had accordingly been prudent. He had promised to be so.
But in all his trials it was an immense consolation for him to find
his old advocate, though now a chief justice, so firmly convinced
that he was not guilty. Yes! Joam Dacosta, in spite of his
condemnation, was a victim, a martyr, an honest man to whom society
owed a signal reparation! And when the magistrate knew the past
career of the fazender of Iquitos since his sentence, the position of
his family, all that life of devotion, of work, employed unceasingly
for the happiness of those belonging to him, he was not only more
convinced but more affected, and determined to do all that he could
to procure the rehabilitation of the felon of Tijuco.
For six months a correspondence had passed between these two men.
One day, the case being pressing, Joam Dacosta wrote to Judge
Ribeiro:
“In two months I will be with you, in the power of the chief justice