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Joam Dacosta, convicted of aggravated and premeditated murder, did not even obtain the benefit of extenuating circumstances, and heard himself condemned to death. There was no hope left for the accused. No commutation of the sentence was possible, for the crime was committed in the diamond arrayal. The condemned man was lost.
"And why," he continued, "should Brazilian justice pursue you?" "Because I was sentenced to death in 1826 in the diamond affair at Tijuco." "You confess then that you are Joam Dacosta?" "I am Joam Dacosta." All this was said with great calmness, and as simply as possible. The little eyes of Judge Jarriquez, hidden by their lids, seemed to say: "Never came across anything like this before."
The official who accompanied the escort had perished with the greater part of the soldiers, and suspicion could not point against him. Everything agreed in distinguishing Dacosta as the true and only author of the crime. Ribeiro defended him with great warmth and with all his powers, but he could not succeed in saving him. The verdict of the jury was affirmative on all the questions.
Well, if the lines had been divided into words, in trying the words one after the other I mean the words composed of seven letters, as the name of Dacosta is it would not have been impossible to evolve the number which is the key of the document." "Will you explain to me how you ought to proceed to do that, sir?" asked Manoel, who probably caught a glimpse of one more hope.
Joam Dacosta, surrounded by his wife, his children, and his friends, was unable to shake the hands which were held out to him.
She had not a doubt as to the innocence of her husband. The idea even never occurred to her that Joam Dacosta had been to blame in marrying her under a name which was not his own. She only thought of the life of happiness she had led with the noble man who had been injured so unjustly. Yes! On the morrow she would go to the gate of the prison, and never leave it until it was opened!
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.
"Perhaps I have," answered Joam Dacosta. At these words, Judge Jarriquez left his chair. This was too much for him, and he had to take two or three circuits of the room to recover himself.
Joam Dacosta, restored to liberty, would have again started on the descent of the river, and what terrible trials would have been avoided! Benito had reached the bottom. His heavy shoes made the gravel on the bed crunch beneath him. He was in some ten or fifteen feet of water, at the base of the cliff, which was here very steep, and at the very spot where Torres had disappeared.
The death penalty in Brazil is generally commuted except in the case of negroes, but this time it was to be suffered by a white man. Such are the penal arrangements relative to crimes in the diamond arrayal, for which, in the public interest, the law allows no appear to mercy. Nothing could now save Joam Dacosta. It was not only life, but honor that he was about to lose.
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