The Purple Land: Chapter 16

Chapter 16

When Alday had left us, the charming se�orita, in whose care I was
well pleased to find myself, led me into a cool, spacious room, dimly
lighted, scantily furnished, and with a floor of red tiles. It was a
great relief to drop into a sofa there, for I now felt fatigued and
suffered great pain from my arm. In a few moments I had the se�orita,
her mother, Do�a Mercedes, and an old serving-woman all round me.
Gently drawing off my coat, they subjected my wounded arm to a minute
examination; their compassionate finger-tips--those of the lovely
Dolores especially--feeling like a soft, cooling rain on the swollen,
inflamed part, which had become quite purple.

"Ah, how barbarous of them to hurt you like that! a friend, too, of
our General!" exclaimed my beautiful nurse; which made me think that
I had involuntarily become associated with the right political party
in the State.

They rubbed the arm with sweet oil; while the old servant brought in
a bundle of rue from the garden, which, being bruised in a mortar,
filled the room with a fresh, aromatic smell. With this fragrant herb
she made a cooling cataplasm. Having dressed my arm, they placed it
in a sling, then in place of my coat a light Indian _poncho_ was
brought for me to wear.

"I think you are feverish," said Do�a Mercedes, feeling my pulse. "We
must send for the doctor--we have a doctor in our little town, a very
skilful man."

"I have little faith in doctors, se�ora," I said, "but great faith in
women and grapes. If you will give me a cluster from your vine to
refresh my blood I promise to be well very soon."

Dolores laughed lightly and left the room, only to return in a few
minutes with a dish full of ripe, purple clusters. They were delicious,
and did seem to allay the fever I felt, which had probably been caused
as much by angry passions as by the blow I had received.

While I reclined luxuriously, sucking my grapes, the two ladies sat
on each side of me, ostensibly fanning themselves, but only, I think,
trying to make the air cooler for me. Very cool and pleasant they made
it, certainly, but the gentle attentions of Dolores were at the same
time such as might well create a subtler kind of fever in a man's
veins--a malady not to be cured by fruit, fans, or phlebotomy.

"Who would not suffer blows for such compensation as this!" I said.

"Do not say such a thing!" exclaimed the se�orita, with wonderful
animation. "Have you not rendered a great service to our dear
General--to our beloved country! If we had it in our power to give you
everything your heart might desire it would be nothing, nothing. We
must be your debtors for ever."

I smiled at her extravagant words, but they were very sweet to hear,
none the less.

"Your ardent love of your country is a beautiful sentiment," I remarked
somewhat indiscreetly, "but is General Santa Coloma so necessary to
its welfare?"

She looked offended and did not reply. "You are a stranger in our
country, se�or, and do not quite understand these things," said the
mother gently. "Dolores must not forget that. You know nothing of the
cruel wars we have seen and how our enemies have conquered only by
bringing in the foreigner to their aid. Ah, se�or, the bloodshed, the
proscriptions, the infamies which they have brought on this land! But
there is one man they have never yet succeeded in crushing: always
from boyhood he has been foremost in the fight, defying their bullets,
and not to be corrupted by their Brazilian gold. Is it strange that
he is so much to us, who have lost all our relations, and have suffered
many persecutions, being deprived almost of the means of subsistence
that hirelings and traitors might be enriched with our property? To
us in this house he is even more than to others. He was my husband's
friend and companion in arms. He has done us a thousand favours, and if
he ever succeeds in overthrowing this infamous government he will restore
to us all the property we have lost. But _ai de mi_, I cannot see
deliverance yet."

"_Mamita,_ do not say such a thing!" exclaimed her daughter. "Do
you begin to despair now when there is most reason to hope?"

"Child, what can he do with this handful of ill-armed men?" returned
the mother sadly. "He has bravely raised the standard, but the people
do not flock to it. Ah, when this revolt is crushed, like so many
others, we poor women will only have to lament for more friends slain
and fresh persecutions." And here she covered her eyes with her
handkerchief.

Dolores tossed her head back and made a sudden gesture of impatience.

"Do you, then, expect to see a great army formed before the ink is dry
on the General's proclamation? When Santa Coloma was a fugitive without
a follower you hoped; now when he is with us, and actually preparing
for a march on the capital, you begin to lose heart--I cannot understand
it!"

Do�a Mercedes rose without replying, and left the room. The lovely
enthusiast dropped her head on her hand, and remained silent, taking
no notice of me, a cloud of sorrow on her countenance.

"Se�orita," I said, "it is not necessary for you to remain longer here.
Only tell me before going that you forgive me, for it makes me very
unhappy to think that I have offended you."

She turned to me with a very bright smile and gave me her hand.

"Ah, it is for you to forgive me for hastily taking offence at a light
word," she said. "I must not allow anything you say in future to spoil
my gratitude. Do you know I think you are one of those who like to
laugh at most things, se�or--no, let me call you Richard, and you shall
call me Dolores, for we must remain friends always. Let us make a
compact, then it will be impossible for us to quarrel. You shall be
free to doubt, question, laugh at everything, except one thing only--my
faith in Santa Coloma."

"Yes, I will gladly make that agreement," I replied. "It will be a new
kind of paradise, and of the fruit of every tree I may eat except of
this tree only."

She laughed gaily.

"I will now leave you," she said. "You are suffering pain, and are
very tired. Perhaps you will be able to sleep." While speaking she
brought a second cushion for my head, then left me, and before long
I fell into a refreshing doze.

I spent three days of enforced idleness at the Casa Blanca, as the
house was called, before Santa Coloma returned, and after the rough
experience I had undergone, during which I had subsisted on a flesh
diet untempered by bread or vegetables, they were indeed like days
spent in paradise to me. Then the General came back. I was sitting
alone in the garden when he arrived, and, coming out to me, he greeted
me warmly.

"I greatly feared from my previous experience of your impatience under
restraint that you might have left us," he said kindly.

"I could not do that very well yet, without a horse to ride on," I
returned.

"Well, I came here just now to say I wish to present you with a horse
and saddle. The horse is standing at the gate now, I believe; but, if
you are only waiting for a horse to leave us I shall have to regret
making you this present. Do not be in a hurry; you have yet many years
to live in which to accomplish all you wish to do, and let us have the
pleasure of your company a few days longer. Do�a Mercedes and her
daughter desire nothing better than to keep you with them."

I promised him not to run away immediately, a promise which was not
hard to make; then we went to inspect my horse, which proved to be a
very fine bay, saddled with a dashing native _recado_.

"Come with me and try him," he said. "I am going to ride out to the
Cerro Solo."

The ride proved an extremely pleasant one, as I had not mounted a horse
for some days, and had been longing to spice my idle hours with a
little exhilarating motion. We went at a swinging gallop over the
grassy plain, the General all the time discoursing freely of his plans
and of the brilliant prospects awaiting all those timely-wise
individuals who should elect to link their fortunes with his at this
early stage of the campaign.

The Cerro, three leagues distant from the village of El Molino, was
a high, conical hill standing quite alone and overlooking the country
for a vast distance around. A few well-mounted men were stationed on
the summit, keeping watch; and, after talking with them for a while,
the General led me to a spot a hundred yards away, where there was a
large mound of sand and stone, up which we made our horses climb with
some difficulty. While we stood here he pointed out the conspicuous
objects on the surface of the surrounding country, telling me the names
of the _estancias_, rivers, distant hills, and other things. The
whole country about us seemed very familiar to him. He ceased speaking
at length, but continued gazing over the wide, sunlit prospect with
a strange, far-off look on his face. Suddenly dropping the reins on
the neck of his horse, he stretched out his arms towards the south and
began to murmur words which I could not catch, while an expression of
mingled fury and exultation transformed his face. It passed away as
suddenly as it came. Then he dismounted, and, stooping till his knee
touched the ground, he kissed the rock before him, after which he sat
down and quietly invited me to do the same. Returning to the subject
he had talked about during our ride, he began openly pressing me to
join him in his march to Montevideo, which, he said, would begin almost
immediately, and would infallibly result in a victory, after which he
would reward me for the incalculable service I had rendered him in
assisting him to escape from the Juez of Las Cuevas. These tempting
offers, which would have fired my brain in other circumstances--the
single state, I mean--I felt compelled to decline, though I did not
state my real reasons for doing so. He shrugged his shoulders in the
eloquent Oriental fashion, remarking that it would not surprise him
if I altered my resolution in a few days.

"Never!" I mentally ejaculated.

Then he recalled our first meeting again, spoke of Margarita, that
marvellously beautiful child, asking if I had not thought it strange
so fair a flower as that should have sprung from the homely stalk of
a sweet potato? I answered that I had been surprised at first, but had
ceased to believe that she was a child of Batata's, or of any of his
kin. He then offered to tell me Margarita's history; and I was not
surprised to hear that he knew it.

"I owe you this," he said, "in expiation of the somewhat offensive
remarks I addressed to you that day in reference to the girl. But you
must remember that I was then only Marcos Marc�, a peasant, and, having
some slight knowledge of acting, it was only natural that my speech
should be, as you find it in our common people, somewhat dry and
ironical.

"Many years ago there lived in this country one Basilio de la Barca,
a person of so noble a figure and countenance that to all those who
beheld him he became the type of perfect beauty, so that a 'Basilio
de la Barca' came to be a proverbial expression in Montevidean society
when anyone surpassingly handsome was spoken of. Though he had a gay,
light-hearted disposition and loved social pleasures, he was not spoilt
by the admiration his beauty excited. Simple-minded and modest he
remained always; though perhaps not capable of any very strong passion,
for though he won, without seeking it, the hearts of many fair women,
he did not marry. He might have married some rich woman to improve his
position had he been so minded, but in this, as in everything else in
his life, Basilio appeared to be incapable of doing anything to advance
his own fortunes. The de la Barcas had once possessed great wealth in
land in the country, and, I have heard, descended from an ancient noble
family of Spain. During the long, disastrous wars this country has
suffered, when it was conquered in turn by England, Portugal, Spain,
Brazil, and the Argentines, the family became impoverished, and at
last appeared to be dying out. The last of the de la Barcas was Basilio,
and the evil destiny which had pursued all of that name for so many
generations did not spare him. His whole life was a series of
calamities. When young he entered the army, but in his first engagement
he received a terrible wound which disabled him for life and compelled
him to abandon the military career. After that he embarked all his
little fortune in commerce, and was ruined by a dishonest partner. At
length when he had been reduced to great poverty, being then about
forty years old, he married an old woman out of gratitude for the
kindness she had shown to him; and with her he went to live on the
sea-coast, several leagues east of Cabo Santa Maria. Here in a small
_rancho_ in a lonely spot called Barranca del Peregrine, and with
only a few sheep and cows to subsist on, he spent the remainder of his
life. His wife, though old, bore him one child, a daughter, named
Transita. They taught her nothing; for in all respects they lived like
peasants and had forgotten the use of books. The situation was also
wild and solitary, and they very seldom saw a strange face. Transita
spent her childhood in rambling over the dunes on that lonely coast,
with only wild flowers, birds, and the ocean waves for playmates. One
day, her age being then about eleven, she was at her usual pastimes,
her golden hair blowing in the wind, her short dress and bare legs wet
with the spray, chasing the waves as they retired, or flying with merry
shouts from them as they hurried back towards the shore, flinging a
cloud of foam over her retreating form, when a youth, a boy of fifteen,
rode up and saw her there. He was hunting ostriches, when, losing sight
of his companions, and finding himself near the ocean, he rode down
to the shore to watch the tide coming in.

"Yes, I was that boy, Richard--you are quick in making conclusions."
This he said not in reply to any remark I had made, but to my thoughts,
which he frequently guessed very aptly.

"The impression this exquisite child made on me it would be impossible
to convey in words. I had lived much in the capital, had been educated
in our best college, and was accustomed to associate with pretty women.
I had also crossed the water and had seen all that was most worthy of
admiration in the Argentine cities. And remember that with us a youth
of fifteen already knows something of life. This child, playing with
the waves, was like nothing I had seen before. I regarded her not as
a mere human creature; she seemed more like some being from I know not
what far-off celestial region who had strayed to earth, just as a bird
of white and azure plumage, and unknown to our woods, sometimes appears,
blown hither from a distant tropical country or island, filling those
who see it with wonder and delight. Imagine, if you can, Margarita
with her shining hair loose to the winds, swift and graceful in her
motions as the waves she plays with, her sapphire eyes sparkling like
sunlight on the waters, the tender tints of the sea-shell in her
ever-changing countenance, with a laughter that seems to echo the wild
melody of the sandpiper's note. Margarita has inherited the form, not
the spirit, of the child Transita. She is an exquisite statue endowed
with life. Transita, with lines equally graceful and colours just as
perfect, had caught the spirit of the wind and sunshine and was all
freedom, motion, fire--a being half human, half angelic. I saw her
only to love her; nor was it a common passion she inspired in me. I
worshipped her, and longed to wear her on my bosom; but I shrank then
and for a long time after from breathing the hot breath of love on so
tender and heavenly a blossom. I went to her parents and opened my
heart to them. My family being well known to Basilio, I obtained his
consent to visit their lonely _rancho_ whenever I could; and I,
on my part, promised not to speak of love to Transita till her sixteenth
year. Three years after I had found Transita, I was ordered to a distant
part of the country, for I was already in the army then, and, fearing
that it would not be possible for me to visit them for a long time,
I persuaded Basilio to let me speak to his daughter, who was now
fourteen. She had by this time grown extremely fond of me, and she
always looked forward with delight to my visits, when we would spend
days together rambling along the shore, or seated on some cliff
overlooking the sea, talking of the simple things she knew, and of
that wonderful, far-away city life of which she was never tired of
hearing. When I opened my heart to her she was at first frightened at
these new strange emotions I spoke of. Soon, however, I was made happy
by seeing her fear grow less. In one day she ceased to be a child; the
rich blood mantled her cheeks, to leave her the next moment pale and
tremulous; her tender lips were toying with the rim of the honeyed
cup. Before I left her she had promised me her hand, and at parting
even clung to me, with her beautiful eyes wet with tears.

"Three years passed before I returned to seek her. During that time
I sent scores of letters to Basilio, but received no reply. Twice I
was wounded in fight, once very seriously. I was also a prisoner for
several months. I made my escape at last, and, returning to Montevideo,
obtained leave of absence. Then, with heart afire with sweet
anticipations, I sought that lonely sea-coast once more, only to find
the weeds growing on the spot where Basilio's _rancho_ had stood.
In the neighbourhood I learnt that he had died two years before, and
that after his death the widow had returned to Montevideo with Transita.
After long inquiry in that city I discovered that she had not long
survived her husband, and that a foreign se�ora, had taken Transita
away, no one knew whither. Her loss cast a great shadow on my life.
Poignant grief cannot endure for ever, nor for very long; only the
memory of grief endures. To this memory, which cannot fade, it is
perhaps due that in one respect at least I am not like other men. I
feel that I am incapable of passion for any woman. No, not if a new
Lucrezia Borgia were to come my way, scattering the fiery seeds of
adoration upon all men, could they blossom to love in this arid heart.
Since I lost Transita I have had one thought, one love, one religion,
and it is all told in one word--_Patria_.

"Years passed. I was captain in General Oribe's army at the siege of
my own city. One day a lad was captured in our lines, and came very
near being put to death as a spy. He had come out from Montevideo, and
was looking for me. He had been sent, he said, by Transita de la Barca,
who was lying ill in the town, and desired to speak to me before she
died. I asked and obtained permission from our General, who had a
strong personal friendship for me, to penetrate into the town. This
was, of course, dangerous, and more so for me, perhaps, than it would
have been for many of my brother officers, for I was very well known
to the besieged. I succeeded, however, by persuading the officers of
a French sloop of war, stationed in the harbour, to assist me. These
foreigners at that time had friendly relations with the officers of
both armies, and three of them had at one time visited our General to
ask him to let them hunt ostriches in the interior. He passed them on
to me, and, taking them to my own _estancia_, I entertained them
and hunted with them for several days. For this hospitality they had
expressed themselves very grateful, inviting me repeatedly to visit
them on board, and also saying that they would gladly do me any personal
service in the town, which they visited constantly. I love not the
French, believing them to be the most vain and egotistical, consequently
the least chivalrous, of mankind; but these officers were in my debt,
and I resolved to ask them to help me. Under cover of night I went on
board their ship; I told them my story, and asked them to take me on
shore with them disguised as one of themselves. With some difficulty
they consented, and I was thus enabled next day to be in Montevideo
and with my long-lost Transita. I found her lying on her bed, emaciated
and white as death, in the last stage of some fatal pulmonary complaint.
On the bed with her was a child between two and three years old,
exceedingly beautiful like her mother, for one glance was sufficient
to tell me it was Transita's child. Overcome with grief at finding her
in this pitiful condition, I could only kneel at her side, pouring out
the last tender tears that have fallen from these eyes. We Orientals
are not tearless men, and I have wept since then, but only with rage
and hatred. My last tears of tenderness were shed over unhappy, dying
Transita.

"Briefly she told me her story. No letter from me had ever reached
Basilio; it was supposed that I had fallen in battle, or that my heart
had changed. When her mother lay dying in Montevideo she was visited
by a wealthy Argentine lady named Romero, who had heard of Transita's
singular beauty, and wished to see her merely out of curiosity. She
was so charmed with the girl that she offered to take her and bring
her up as her own daughter. To this the mother, who was reduced to the
greatest poverty and was dying, consented gladly. Transita was in this
way taken to Buenos Ayres, where she had masters to instruct her, and
lived in great splendour. The novelty of this life charmed her for a
time; the pleasures of a large city, and the universal admiration her
beauty excited, occupied her mind and made her happy. When she was
seventeen the Se�ora Romero bestowed her hand on a young man of that
city, named Andrada, a wealthy person. He was a fashionable man, a
gambler, and a Sybarite, and, having conceived a violent passion for
the girl, he succeeded in winning over the se�ora to aid his suit.
Before marrying him Transita told him frankly that she felt incapable
of great affection for him; he cared nothing for that, he only wished,
like the animal he was, to possess her for her beauty. Shortly after
marrying her he took her to Europe, knowing very well that a man with
a full purse, and whose spirit is a compound of swine and goat, finds
life pleasanter in Paris than in the Plata. In Paris Transita lived
a gay, but an unhappy life. Her husband's passion for her soon passed
away, and was succeeded by neglect and insult. After three miserable
years he abandoned her altogether to live with another woman, and then,
in broken health, she returned with her child to her own country. When
she had been several months in Montevideo she heard casually that I
was still alive and in the besieging army; and, anxious to impart her
last wishes to a friend, had sent for me.

"Could you, my friend, could any man, divine the nature of that dying
request Transita wished to make?

"Pointing to her child, she said, 'Do you not see that Margarita
inherits that fatal gift of beauty which won for me a life of splendour,
with extreme bitterness of heart and early death? Soon, before I die,
perhaps, there will not be wanting some new se�ora Romero to take
charge of her, who will at last sell her to some rich, cruel man, as
I was sold; for how can her beauty remain long concealed? It was with
very different views for her that I secretly left Paris and returned
here. During all the miserable years I spent there I thought more and
more of my childhood on that lonely coast, until, when I fell ill, I
resolved to go back there to spend my last days on that beloved spot
where I had been so happy. It was my intention to find some peasant
family there who would be willing to take Margarita and bring her up
as a peasant's child, with no knowledge of her father's position and
of the life men live in towns. The siege and my failing health made
it impossible for me to carry out that plan. I must die here, dear
friend, and never see that lonely coast where we have sat together so
often watching the waves. But I think only of poor little Margarita
now, who will soon be motherless: will you not help me to save her?
Promise me that you will take her away to some distant place, where
she will be brought up as a peasant's child, and where her father will
never find her. If you can promise me this, I will resign her to you
now, and face death without even the sad consolation of seeing her by
me to the last.'

"I promised to carry out her wishes, and also to see the child as often
as circumstances would allow, and when she grew up to find her a good
husband. But I would not deprive her of the child then. I told her
that if she died, Margarita would be conveyed to the French ship in
the harbour, and afterwards to me, and that I knew where to place her
with good-hearted, simple peasants who loved me, and would obey my
wishes in all things.

"She was satisfied, and I left her to make the necessary arrangements
to carry out my plans. A few weeks later Transita expired, and the
child was brought to me. I then sent her to Batata's house, where,
ignorant of the secret of her birth, she has been brought up as her
mother wished her to be. May she never, like the unhappy Transita,
fall into the power of a ravening beast in man's shape."

"Amen!" I exclaimed. "But surely, if this child will be entitled to
a fortune some day, it will only be right that she should have it."

"We do not worship gold in this country," he replied. "With us the
poor are just as happy as the rich, their wants are so few, and easily
satisfied. It would be too much to say that I love the child more than
I love anyone else; I think only of Transita's wishes; that for me is
the only right in the matter. Had I failed to carry them out to the
letter, then I should have suffered a great remorse. Possibly I may
encounter Andrada some day, and pass my sword through his body; that
would give me no remorse."

After some moments of silence he looked up and said, "Richard, you
admired and loved that beautiful girl when you first saw her. Listen,
if you wish it you shall have her for a wife. She is simple-minded,
ignorant of the world, affectionate, and where she is told to love she
will love. Batata's people will obey my wishes in everything."

I shook my head, smiling somewhat sorrowfully when I thought that the
events of the last few days had already half obliterated Margarita's
fair image from my mind. This unexpected proposition had, moreover,
forced on me, with a startling suddenness, the fact that by once
performing the act of marriage a man has for ever used up the most
glorious privilege of his sex--of course, I mean in countries where
he is only allowed to have one wife. It was no longer in my power to
say to any woman, however charming I might find her, "Be my wife." But
I did not explain all this to the General.

"Ah, you are thinking of conditions," said he; "there will be none."

"No, you have guessed wrong--for once," I returned. "The girl is all
you say; I have never seen a being more beautiful, and I have never
heard a more romantic story than the one you have just told me about
her birth. I can only echo your prayer that she may not suffer as her
mother did. In name she is not a de la Barca, and perhaps destiny will
spare her on that account."

He glanced keenly at me and smiled. "Perhaps you are thinking more of
Dolores than of Margarita just now," he said. "Let me warn you of your
danger there, my young friend. She is already promised to another."

Absurdly unreasonable as it may seem, I felt a jealous pang at that
information; but then, of course, we are _not_ reasonable beings,
whatever the philosophers say.

I laughed, not very gaily, I must confess, and answered that there was
no need to warn me, as Dolores would never be more to me than a very
dear friend.

Even then I did not tell him that I was a married man; for often in
the Banda Orient�l I did not quite seem to know how to mix my truth
and lies, and so preferred to hold my tongue. In this instance, as
subsequent events proved, I held it not wisely but too well. The open
man, with no secrets from the world, often enough escapes disasters
which overtake your very discreet person, who acts on the old adage
that speech was given to us to conceal our thoughts.

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