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. When I saw her, my heart began to race as it had done in pasttimes, when happiness resided in it.  Divine goodness, I exclaimed,  have you sent this woman to meas an angel of redemption? And getting up impetuously, I ran toward her. My presence seemed to frighten her, but she did not grow toodisconcerted.  You are a bandit and I know what you want, she said to me, tak-ing a diamond ring from her finger. Here is my engagement ring.Take it, and tomorrow, at this same time, in this same place, I willgive you a large reward for it.Do not worry about my not keeping myword; tonight I am going to marry a wealthy man who has laidtremendous fortunes at my feet; and even though I loved another, Iprefer being rich.Right now, as a matter of fact, I was sending off thelast of the memories from that love to the wind. Betrayal! This ideal being had a soul of mire! The sentiment thatshone in her blue eyes, which was heard in her melodious voice, wasnot love it was greed! I fell once again from the high region where I had hovered, andcaressed a deceiving chimera.  You vile creature! I exclaimed, as the woman suddenly embodiedfor me the memory of the perfidious girl who had deceived me, andthe tender emotions in which my soul had been swimming turned172 | Dreams and Realitiesinto an enraged fury. You vile creature! So your heart loves gold, doesit? So you walk about with a smile on your lips and your eyes turnedto the heavens dreaming your evil dreams and coldly preparing abetrayal, condemning to eternal pain the soul that loves you? So youwant gold? Have it then, and with it the prize of your betrayal! And I plunged my dagger deep into the woman s bosom, andopened up her chest, and tore out her heart, and threw it, still beat-ing, to a vulture waiting nearby for the spoils.Then I filled the bloodyhole left behind with all the gold I had with me.The man s voice, which at the beginning of the narration of theterrible episode had wavered and trembled, gained speed and fury asit went along, rushing like a torrent toward the end, shaking horren-dously. Three times deceived by good, he continued, once his exaltationhad calmed down,  I swore not to believe in it again, and I plungedmyself once more, this time deeper than ever, into my life of crime.Ilay waste to the region, burned houses to the ground, and made theroads impassable. The men of the law actively pursued me.But I always mockedthem, and aided by the astonishing quickness of our horses, stolenfrom the best breeders of the neighboring provinces, I would disap-pear just when they thought they had me in their hands, and imme-diately appear far away, accompanied by my terrible band, bringingdeath and destruction wherever I went. As I carried on in this manner, it did not take long for supersti-tions to be added to the fear that my name already inspired.I wasthought to be a supernatural being sent by hell; inside the cabins theyspoke of Gubi Amaya in low voices full of terror. One day I was waiting in ambush on a road in the Forests of theSwamp.It was November ninth, he added, raising his head with asolemn gesture and gazing up to the sky vaguely as he seemed tobecome lost in the memories of that distant day. The sun was nearly setting, my band was waiting for me threeleagues away, and I was getting ready to retire for the day when Iheard the sound of branches cracking and the steps of someoneGubi Amaya | 173approaching.Soon afterward, I saw a man appear, mounted on amagnificent horse that I longed to have at once.I determined that Iwould take it from him right there and then. I jumped in the middle of the road and shouted loudly:  Stop! When he heard my cry, the man, who had been riding along dis-tractedly, looked up, and our eyes met.  You are Gubi Amaya, he exclaimed,  I have finally found you,villain. And he came at me, not with the anger of an attacking aggressor,but with the energetic serenity of a judge passing judgment. There was something in the countenance and in the voice of thatman, though he was still quite young, something so imposing andmajestic, that how strange! I, the cold-blooded highwayman, whohad done away with all fear and had always acted boldly, froze withfright for the first time in my life, and fled into the forest as fast as myhorse would go. He followed close behind me; but he was less accustomed than Ito galloping through the dense forest and was thus at a great disad-vantage, despite the agility and quickness of his steed. We reached a small clearing in the middle of the trees, where mypursuer gave a strong kick to his horse, certain that he could catch methere. I anticipated his move.Pulling suddenly back on my horsesreigns, I made a quarter turn to the right, and bolted again for thecovering of the trees.But at that point my enemy reached suddenlyinto a coat pocket, took out a fistful of gold doubloons, and threwthem at my head with surprising strength, shouting in his loud andterrifying voice:  You vile creature! So you want gold? Have it then! Those words, combined with the awful blow of the coins, whichcut into my forehead, made me fall listless to the ground for thosewere the same words that I had uttered when I carried out the onlycowardly action of all the crimes that marked my life words thatreached my ear as prophetic and solemn, as if they had been utteredby the mystical trumpets of Judgment Day. Through the syncope that clouded my senses and hindered my174 | Dreams and Realitiesfaculties, I felt the tremendous hand that had knocked me down nowturned into an instrument of restitution.It touched my bruised bodygently and charitably and stopped the flow of blood gushing from thewound on my head with the dexterity of a doctor and the solicitudeof a brother. My drowsiness then became so heavy that I did not feel anythingbesides a rough and continual movement shaking my body, and thepain this motion caused my head wound. When I came to again, I was lying on a bed in a dimly lit room; aman was reading by its light, his head resting on his hand.Althoughhis back was to me, I still recognized him: It was the man who hadknocked me off my horse. I sighed involuntarily, and the man turned around.Seeing I wasawake, he stood up, grabbed a cup that was next to him, came up tome, and had me take a refreshing drink.He checked my pulse; afterfixing the pillows and the position of my head, he went back to keep-ing his vigil and reading. What else can I say? The man continued taking care of me in thismanner for the seven days it took for my wound to heal.On theeighth, after helping me get dressed, he had me sit up in a chair, sathimself next to me, and gave me a grave and sad look.  Do you feel, he asked,  that you have enough strength to hear meout and answer me? I did not feel like I did, in fact, for the man exercised a strangepower over me, and I had feared this moment ever since I had falleninto his hands.My pride, however, rebelled against this mysteriousinfluence.Wishing to overcome it, I turned my eyes away from thesevere gaze with which he looked at me.  It is useless, I answered,  to waste time with words.There isnothing for you to know about me.My actions speak for themselves;they are written everywhere [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]