"Come, my friend," hesaid, "you have frequently been guided by my advice; be so now, andaccompany me whither I will conduct you."
"What! and leave my mistress to her fate? Never! I go alone, if no onewill accompany me!" exclaimed Luis; and breaking suddenly from CaptainPinto, he rushed in the direction Gertrudes indicated that the ruffianwho bore away Clara had taken. Pedro, who was supporting the fidalgo,was compelled to place his burden on the ground before he could pursuehis master; nor could the Captain even attempt to overtake him with anyhope of success. Don Luis had already disappeared down a street, thehouses rocking and burning on each side, when Pedro reached thecommencement. At that instant, a lofty building, not fifty yards beforehim, fell with a loud crash, completely blocking up the street, andsending up showers of sparks and flame, like the bursting forth of avolcano.
Pedro stood aghast, trembling at his own narrow escape, and at the tooprobable fate of his master, with whom all communication was nowhopelessly cut off. The Captain now coming up, said, in an agitatedvoice, as he led him back to where the fidalgo had been left,--"We canbe of more service to the living than to the dead. We will see this oldman in safety, and then return to search for your master."
This was, indeed, the only thing now to be done, and after manydifficulties and much labour they reached the palace of the Marchionessof Corcunda. The door was open, and the mansion deserted, though itappeared not to have been pillaged, and after searching in everydirection, it was discovered that the inmates had taken refuge in thegarden, where they were collected beneath some orange trees; stilluttering lamentations for what had occurred, which were increased whenthey heard the account Gertrudes detailed to them of the loss of Clara,and on seeing the state the fidalgo was in. The ladies were collectedtogether in the centre, and their female attendants and men servantsaround them, all wringing their hands and sobbing, not one of themthinking of raising any covering to shelter themselves, or bringing outbenches or chairs to sleep on. The Captain, however, with a sailor'sactivity, set to work to make such arrangements as were practicable, forthe comfort of the ladies and of the unfortunate fidalgo, who, as yet,gave few signs of being conscious of what was going forward. Theservants worked but slowly, and were afraid of entering the house,although they did not hesitate to obey the Captain, who, it must beremembered, was a perfect stranger among them; but, on occasions ofdanger and difficulty, the man of courage and talent will always commandobedience. Overcome with fatigue, the gallant Captain and the faithfulPedro, after snatching a short rest, again set out in search of DonLuis.
Volume 2, Chapter XV.
Twice had the sun risen over the city of desolation since the dreadfulcatastrophe of the 1st of November; and the flames yet raged in everypart. Nearly twenty thousand persons, it was supposed, had beendestroyed by the earthquake; and the greater number of the remainingcitizens had quitted the fatal spot, and were encamped in the openfields in the neighbourhood; some with scarcely clothes to cover them,and without food to supply the cravings of hunger. Here all classes andorders of people were promiscuously mingled; respectable citizensreduced to abject poverty by the entire destruction of their property;the hapless virgins dedicated to the service of Heaven, driven fromtheir sanctuaries among the most lawless and abandoned of mankind.Servants and their former masters; ladies, accustomed to gentle nurture,among mechanics, soldiers and porters; the virtuous and the profligate,the rich and the poor, the noble and the beggar, in the same wretchedcondition. The whole fabric of society was completely disorganised;murders, robberies, and all species of crimes were committed with themost flagrant daring; and naught was heard but groans and cries ofdistress. Slight shocks still continued to be felt at intervals ofevery half-hour; famine also had visited them; and, to add to theirdisasters, the effluvia arising from the vast number of dead bodieswhich choked up the streets, threatened them with a pestilence; so thathundreds of those who were able had already taken their departure toother towns; and the city would have been completely deserted, had notSebastiao Joze de Carvalho, now created Prime Minister, exerted hisutmost power to prevent so unfortunate an event to the kingdom.
It was now that he exhibited, in the greatest degree, that energeticcharacter, and those extraordinary abilities which distinguished himamong his countrymen. Having received full powers from the King to actas he judged expedient, both day and night he drove from place to placein his carriage, to observe what was most necessary to be done,--itserving him for his bureau, his couch, and his parlour; the only food hetook on the first day being a basin of broth, which the Countess Daun,his wife, brought him with her own hands. His first care was to cut offall communication between the burning part of the city and that whichremained entire; for to extinguish the conflagration was beyond hispower, or the means of man to accomplish; his next was to despatchmessengers into all the surrounding districts, to collect provisions forthe houseless inhabitants; and his third was to send round to all theparochial clergy and heads of yet existing convents, to urge them toimpress on their congregations and inferiors, as a duty both grateful toHeaven, and called for by man, to bury the dead without delay.
This last order had at first, owing to the paralysation of theirenergies, with which terror and misery had affected all men, been butnegligently obeyed; and the streets were yet, in some places, actuallyblocked up with the dead, particularly in front of the churches, wherethey lay piled in heaps, mangled in every shocking way; some burned tocinders or scorched by the flames, and others torn almost to pieces bythe savage dogs and vermin. Such sights were, indeed, dreadful tobehold, but the eyes of those who had ventured into this arena ofdevastation and confusion had already become familiarised with them.Some of the noblest in the land had, with philanthropic boldness,wandered amid the ruins, to bear succour to those who might yetprovidentially remain alive beneath them; and among the first of thosecharitable persons, who set so bright an example to their fellow-men,was Don John of Braganca, a cousin of the King's, and brother of theDuke of Lafoens, well-known about that time, in France and England, asthe Duke of Braganca. It was reported that, in his presence, a youngdamsel was dug out of a cellar, in perfect health, on the sixth day, andit was fully believed by the pious that she was, as she affirmed, savedfrom destruction by clasping a figure of Saint Anthony, which was foundin her embrace.
But to return to the day we first spoke of. From all the yet existingchurches, mournful processions issued, headed by priests or friars, andaccompanied by parties of seculars carrying biers, who perambulated thestreets, and bore the bodies of the wretched victims, either to thewater's edge, from whence they were conveyed to the centre of the Tagus,and sunk with weights; or else to large receptacles prepared in theneighbourhood of the city, when quick-lime was thrown in on them. But,though these toiled all day, little progress appeared yet to have beenmade in the sad work, so great was the number of the dead.
They were not the only people seen among the ruins; for the ruffianbanditti continued their depredations, unawed by the summary punishmentof two or three of their number, who had been seized in the fact, andhung, by the Minister's orders, without further trial. But there wasone who belonged to neither of those classes, who had been seen, nightand day, constantly wandering in every direction, gazing at every femalecorpse he passed, and eagerly eyeing every person he encountered,fearless of danger from the burning edifices, and disregarding themenaces of the vile wretches he often interrupted in their lawlesspursuits. His countenance was worn and haggard, and his dressdisordered and soiled, though, from his air and general appearance, heevidently belonged to the Fidalguia. He was closely followed by anotherperson, who, although pale and wearied, did not exhibit the same signsof mental prostration and wretchedness, and was, from his costume andmanner, apparently the servant of the first. The day was nearly spent,but still he wandered on, uncertain which way to direct his steps. Hestopped to question each person he met; but all considered him as onewhose brain had been turned by the horrors of the times, and,disregarding him, hurri
ed by. On he wandered, his search proving, tooclearly, as fruitless as at first, till he observed a naval officer,followed by a party of men in uniform, at a little distance: he hurriedtowards them.
"Have you discovered any traces of her?--have you any chance of findingher?" he eagerly exclaimed, addressing the officer.
"Alas! my dear Luis, no," answered Captain Pinto. "I have as yet beenunsuccessful; but the Minister, to whom I recounted your sad tale, hassent for a person who will to-morrow accompany you in your search, andwill be of more aid than all the soldiers of the kingdom. He declaresthat, if these atrocities, which have disgraced humanity since the fatalday, do not cease, he will inflict such severe chastisement on allmalefactors as will effectually terrify others from continuing the likeexcesses. In the mean time, come and take some rest, or you will to nopurpose wear out both body and mind with fatigue."
"I cannot rest until I have recovered her; or, if she is lost to me forever, death will bring me the only tranquillity I can hope for,"answered Luis, in a tone of deep melancholy.
Pedro, who had soon discovered and followed his master through alldangers with constant faithfulness, heard this declaration with dismay,and joined the Captain in endeavouring to persuade him to quit hishopeless search for a time, to recruit his strength; but it was not tilldarkness came on, the first that had shrouded the city for the lastthree days, for the flames were now subsiding, that he consented toreturn to the palace of the Marchioness of Corcunda, to snatch a fewhours' troubled rest.
Captain Pinto was obliged to leave him, to perform certain duties he hadundertaken by the Minister's desire, in watching the banks of the river,to prevent the escape of robbers with their booty in that direction.
On the following morning, the carriage of the Minister was beset bynumerous persons complaining of the fresh and atrocious outrages whichhad been committed during the past night.
On hearing the cases, he directly wrote the following decree, in thename of the King:--
"It having been represented to me, that, in the city of Lisbon and itsneighbourhood, since the first of the month, many atrocious andsacrilegious robberies have been committed,--churches have beenprofaned, houses have been broken open, and people, even whenendeavouring to save themselves from the falling edifices, have beenassaulted with violence in the streets, to the great scandal, not onlyof Christian piety, but even of humanity,--and considering that likecrimes, by their turpitude, make the perpetrators unworthy of theadvantage of the usual process of trial, and indispensably require aprompt and severe chastisement, which may put an end to so horrible ascandal,--I decree, that all persons who have been, or shall be,apprehended for the above-said crimes, shall be tried by the simpleverbal process by which the deed may be proved, and that those who arefound guilty of those crimes, shall be forthwith forwarded, with thesaid verbal processes, to the Chief Regidor of the House of Punishment,who shall name, without delay, those Judges whom he is accustomed toname in like cases, that they may, without loss of time, also passjudgment on all the aforesaid processes verbal, so that those judgmentspassed by them shall be put into execution on the very day on which theyare passed, and all without embargo of any laws, decrees, edicts, andordinances whatever to the contrary, because these are passed for thisparticular purpose, they still retaining their vigour. The same ChiefRegidor having thus understood, let him carry it into execution.--Belem,4th November, 1755."
Then the Minister despatched orders to the magistrates of every barrierof the city, to erect as lofty gibbets as they possibly could; anotherdecree ordering that the condemned should be immediately hung up, andthere left to rot in the sun; and before many days had passed, twohundred persons graced the gibbets; and though probably a few innocentones may have been among them, the greater number were doubtless a goodriddance from society; and, as the Minister observed, violent diseasesrequire violent remedies. This proved the truth of the saying; for theatrocities were at length put a stop to for a time. One man in chainsmay inspire a youthful Turpins romantic ardour; but we suspect twohundred ghastly corpses would have sickened even Jack Sheppard of hislofty ambition.
We find ourselves anticipating the course of events. As soon as theMinister had ordered the erection of the gibbets, he bethought him itmight be as well to assemble some troops to guard them, lest, as therogues and vagabonds were pretty numerous, they should take it intotheir heads to hang thereon the honest men instead. Soldiers were,therefore, marched from all directions, so as to form a complete cordonround Lisbon, allowing none to enter or go out without a pass from thechief of police.
It was next thought advisable, since the aforesaid rogues and vagabondscould scarcely be expected to be so convinced of the enormities of theircrimes, as to come and offer themselves voluntarily for punishment; andthat as they could not possibly be hung without being first caught, anymore than a hare can be cooked when still ranging her native fields,that bodies of police should be selected, under fit and proper officers,to apprehend the villains. Some were chosen among the military; but, asthe soldiers, it was suspected, might be too apt rather to imitate thansuppress the excesses, the greater number were respectable citizens, whowere glad to volunteer under good leaders, among whom our friend CaptainPinto was the first chosen.
Even before the morning broke, Luis had again commenced his search forClara, which proved fruitless as before. On meeting his friend,however, he accompanied him to visit the Minister, to whom he was aboutto make some reports.
"I have not forgotten you, my young friend," said Carvalho, as soon ashe saw Luis. "Though all require my care, yours is a peculiar case, andhere is one who will be of more assistance to you than any other I canafford;" and he called a man to his side, to whom he gave somedirections, and motioned towards Luis, when he added, "Farewell, and maysuccess attend you!" and again turned to the public business in which hewas engaged. That with Captain Pinto was soon despatched, when,accompanied by Luis and the person the Minister had introduced to him,he returned to the city.
Not to keep our readers in suspense as to who this personage was, we mayas well intimate that he was our acquaintance, the _ci-devant_ cobbler,Antonio; though at present he bore none of the signs of his trade abouthim, but rather had the appearance of a quiet notary, or sedateshopkeeper.
"I will do my best to serve you, senhor," he said; "but I fear much weshall not discover the young lady. In ordinary times I might have beensuccessful; but now I cannot set about the work in the way I would havedone."
Luis, at Antonio's desire, gave him an exact description of Clara,(though perhaps he painted her with the pencil and colours lovers areapt to use,) and then of the ruffian who had carried her off, and ofwhom, for the same reason, it may be supposed, he did not speak in themost flattering terms; but his hearer, who seemed inclined to smile atthe narration, made due allowances for both; and by the time the partyhad reached the ruined part of the city, he had made himself fullymaster of all the circumstances of the case. He then, turning toCaptain Pinto, begged him to separate from them for a time, appointingto meet him at a certain hour, if he was successful in the first stepshe intended to pursue.
Accompanied by Luis and Pedro, who would not leave him, he then plungedinto the most intricate and narrow lanes of the city, climbing overruins, among which were seen the mangled and burnt bodies of thewretched inhabitants, scaring, as they proceeded, the gorged dogs fromtheir horrid feast. Now and then only they met a human being; for none,except for the purposes of concealment, had ventured where, even inbetter days, few were willing to wander unprotected. Antonio spoke toeach one he passed, but all shook their heads in answer; yet, notdiscouraged by his want of success at first, he pursued the same plan,though the appearance of his acquaintances, it must be confessed, didcertainly not afford Luis a very high opinion of his character, for amore villainous set of cut-throats it had never been his lot toencounter, although they were habited in the richest and most costlygarments; but these were so evidently part of the spoils they hadcollected, and
sat so ill upon them, that they only increased theferocity and wildness of their countenances. Once or twice they metpersons with whom he held rather longer conferences, and he appeared bydegrees to be gaining some information which was satisfactory. Atlength, as they were turning the corner of a street, they came suddenlyon a person who endeavoured to escape them, by hurrying, at some risk,among the smoking ruins, the moment he saw them approaching; but Antoniowas too quick for him, and running after him, caught him by the arm.The person made no further resistance; but, on the contrary, as soon ashe saw who was his pursuer, he embraced him cordially, seeming to feelmuch pleasure at the rencontre, accompanying him quietly as he walkedon, followed at a little distance by Luis and Pedro.
"Do you know, senhor, that I have seen the figure of that man before,"said the latter to his master. "I caught a glimpse of his countenance,and as I am a sinner, and hope to be saved, it is no other than thehermit of Nossa Senhora da Pedra, and the holy padre Fre Lopez."
"Thank Heaven," ejaculated Luis, "that we have met him. It must be him,and he is the only man who will be able to assist me;" and he washurrying to overtake Antonio and his companion, when the latter, givinghim a parting embrace, hastened off in a different direction.
"Who was that person?" inquired Luis, as he joined Antonio.
"A very great vagabond, senhor, but yet not near so great a villain asmany who profess to be virtuous. I have known him for a long time, andif he could but resist temptation, he would be an honest man; and Iwould trust my life in his power, provided it was not his interest totake it."
"If he is the man I supposed, he saved mine three days ago," returnedLuis. "Is he not called Fre Diogo Lopez?"
"That is one of
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