to obey the commands of the King, who, onhis return desired that his chaplain might forthwith be summoned; when,all retiring except the holy man, he returned thanks to the King ofkings for the preservation of his life from so great a danger, and thenconfessed himself of his sins at the feet of the minister of the gospel.
In the mean time, the honest Custodio could not restrain his tongue fromwhispering to the servants of the Marquis, under promise of secrecy, anaccount of the dreadful occurrence; and they, of course, repeated it totheir fellows; so that, before the morning dawned, the tale, withwonderful additions and alterations, was spread far and wide.
On the arrival of the surgeon, he and the Marquis, with Teixeira, wereagain admitted into the presence of the King, who had concluded hisreligious devotions; and the horror of all may be better conceived thandescribed, when, his cloak being taken off, his breast and right armwere perceived covered with blood, which had trickled down over the restof his dress. Without having uttered a word of complaint since he waswounded, the King now submitted himself into the hands of his surgeon,who, to the extreme satisfaction of his friends, pronounced the woundsto be unattended with danger, although they were very severe. Severalslugs had entered his shoulder and breast, tearing away the flesh fromthe arm, but no other injury was committed on his person.
"Another mark of the miraculous interference of Divine Omnipotence," asagain observes the chronicler, "on that night of horrors; for it cannotbe in the common order of events, nor can it be in anywise ascribed tothe casualty of accidental occurrences, that two charges of slugs, firedout of such pieces, should make their way through the narrow space of acarriage, without totally and absolutely destroying the persons who werein such a carriage."
The surgical operation having been performed, the King took leave of hishost, and, accompanied by Teixeira and the surgeon, returned to theroyal palace; the Marquis, however, with two of his servants, riding oneach side of the carriage, to protect him from a further attack; nor didhe quit his post till he had aided his sovereign to descend at theprivate door, where he was in the custom of alighting.
Pale and agitated with the alarming occurrences of the night, the Kingentered his private cabinet, where the sagacious Minister was stillseated, deeply immersed in business. Carvalho rose as he entered, butstarted back with horror as he beheld the countenance of his sovereign."What has happened to your gracious Majesty?" he exclaimed.
"Foul treason has been at work, Senhor Carvalho; though, through themercy of Heaven, we have escaped destruction."
"Alas! then, my fears have not been groundless," said Carvalho; "andyour Majesty will be convinced that there are men wicked enough to seekyour life. Let me now entreat you to retire to your chamber, where, ifit pleases your Majesty, you can detail all that has happened."
The King, when placed in bed, no one but the Minister, his surgeon, andTeixeira being admitted, gave an account to the former of what hadoccurred.
Carvalho listened with breathless anxiety, and well he might; his fame,his life, and power depended on the preservation of the King. A slightfrown was on his brow, and a quivering movement might have beenperceived on the upper of his closed lips, but he gave no other evidenceof the thoughts passing within, till he answered, in a deep voice, "Iwill discover every one of the instigators and perpetrators of thisatrocious outrage; and I ask but one condition of your Majesty:--Let medeal with the vile monsters as I may deem expedient, and all othersshall learn such a lesson that, from thenceforth, your Majesty shallhave no cause to dread a recurrence of such deeds. Will you, my Liege,grant this promise, which you owe to your own safety, and to thehappiness of your people?"
"I give you the power you ask, my friend," said the King.
"Then am I satisfied," said the Minister.
Those words sealed the fate of the nobility of Portugal.
Volume 3, Chapter X.
On the morning after the events last described, a rumour was spread overLisbon that something dreadful had happened; and people met each otherin the streets with alarmed and inquiring countenances. Some said theKing had been assassinated; others that his carriage had beenoverturned, and that he had been killed by the shock; others that he haddied of apoplexy; while others, again, affirmed that he was still alive.The greater number, however, fully believed that he had beenassassinated, several declaring that they had been aroused from theirsleep in the dead of night, and looking out of their window's hadperceived the dark figures of horsemen galloping along at a furiousrate. By degrees, large crowds assembled in the neighbourhood of thepalace, all anxious, from many different motives, to learn the truth;but the windows were kept closed, and not a person was seen to issueforth to give the information sought for.
"I wonder who will be king now," said a seller of lemonade, to afisherman, who stood near him with large baskets of fish balanced ateach end of a pole upon his shoulder. "Some say it will be Dom Pedro.I hope so; he encourages religion and processions, and they bring peopleabroad, and make them thirsty. Who'll buy my cool lemonade?"
"For my part, I care little: one king is as good as another," answeredthe fisherman. "What difference can it make to us who sits upon thethrone? I hear the Duke of Aveiro is a likely man, and he is a friendof the Jesuits, who patronise fasting and fish-eating, which is all Ihave to look after. Fresh fish! alive and jumping!" he cried in a louddrawling tone, and passed on.
Men now inquired of each other who had committed the deed, if anassassination had been perpetrated; and several persons were seen movingamong the crowds, spreading various reports. It was soon loudlydeclared that the Jesuits were the perpetrators of the outrage; whileothers whispered that the members of the Tavora family knew more aboutthe affair than anybody else, for that their servants were the first toinform them that the King had been killed. Some, again, contradictedthat report, declaring that one or two people had first heard of it whengoing, in the morning, to the Quinta of the Duke of Aveiro; and thatSenhor Policarpio had not only affirmed that the King was dead, butthat, if a certain noble Duke came to the throne, he would establishsome more saints' days, encourage the ceremonies of the Church, andbull-fights, with unprecedented magnificence; that he would abrogate alltaxes, and increase the pomp of their processions.
"The Duke will make an excellent king," whispered many; "he is soreligious and so generous."
The friends of the Tavoras, though they credited the report of theKing's assassination, stoutly denied that that noble family could be inany way implicated in so atrocious a crime. Unfortunately, however, fortheir assertions, a little humpbacked water-carrier declared that heknew every member of them perfectly well by sight, for that he hadserved the palace of the Marquis with water for many years, till it hadbeen destroyed by the earthquake, and, while in the hall, had seen themgo in and out a thousand times; and that he was confident he had seenyoung Joze de Tavora, at day-break on that very morning, gallopingtowards Belem, from the upper part of Lisbon. This story gained rapidcredence, and, as it spread from mouth to mouth, various additions were,of course, made to it; so that, before many minutes had passed, it wascurrently believed that the old Marquis of Tavora, with his two sons,had been encountered, with pistols in their hands, rushing from the spotwhere the King had been assassinated.
On an occasion like the present, our friend Antonio, the _soi-disant_cobbler, was certain not to be absent; and, unnoticed by any, in hisworking costume, he moved among the crowds, collecting the variousreports with indefatigable industry; though, whenever he had anopportunity of putting in a word, he cautioned his hearers not to accuseany without clear evidence of their guilt, but that if the criminalswere discovered, they would deserve condign punishment. Great, however,was the surprise of all, both the friends and enemies of the Tavoras,when the Prime Minister himself appeared at a window of the palace, and,lifting up his hand to impose silence, assured the populace that notonly was the King alive, but that, as far as he could learn, no attemptwhatever had been made against his august life; that the report hadari
sen, probably, owing to some words uttered by the postilion in hisalarm, when the mules of his Majesty's carriage had taken fright; that,owing to the latter circumstance, the carriage had been thrown on oneside, by which his gracious Majesty had received a slight injury in thearm.
"Long live the King!--viva, viva!" exclaimed the populace, on hearingthis announcement; for they are ever ready to shout, it matters littleto them for whom. The cry saluted the ears of the Duke of Aveiro, who,followed by Senhor Policarpio, rode up, with eager haste, the very firstof the nobility, to make inquiries for his sovereign's health. Hischeek, perchance, turned a shade more pale, as he heard the cry; but,dashing onward, regardless of the collected rabble, he dismounted at thegate of the palace, desiring to be admitted to the presence of the King.The Prime Minister alone received him in the audience-chamber, and,with