Part 94 (1/2)
Ignoring his embarra.s.sment, I gave my amigo a great hug. Mateo took me into a corner and spoke to me in whispers.
”You have escaped the stake, but not severe punishment. You will get a hundred lashes and sentenced to the northern mines.”
”How do you know?”
”My cousin in Oaxaca, who made his fortune buying land from indios after getting them drunk, has paid the Holy Office for my sins. He has proof our family line has purity of blood. I will be taken to Acapulco and placed aboard the Manila galleon. The ocean crossing is rivaled only by Charon's trip across the river Styx. Many of those who survive the brutal trip are eaten by the natives.
”I asked an accommodation for you, and he was told you were a suspected marrano, so exile to Manila was not possible. But he discovered that someone had paid for your life. A sentence to the mines is hardly less painful than being burned at the stake, but at least you live another day and... who knows?” He shrugged.
”And what of the don? Juana and Inez?”
His face darkened and he wouldn't look at me.
”The stake. They will be burned at the stake? Santa Maria,” I whispered. ”Is there no way to ransom them?”
”Inez and Juana are marranos.”
”I don't believe it.”
”They had a book of Jewish rites Isabella found.”
”It was lying evidence. The don's initials were not on the book.”
”The book was theirs, not the don's. I saw it at the hacienda. I also know they commonly practiced the rites. I have seen them. That's why the don banished them to the hacienda. And he forbade them from bringing any of their Jewish instruments or books with them. They brought it to the city, and Isabella found it and used it against them. I was shown the book by the frays and denied I had ever seen it.”
”I don't care if they're Jews. They're my friends.”
”Not friends, b.a.s.t.a.r.do, they're our family. And while we don't care, there are many who do.”
”Nothing can be done?”
”If they repent, they will be strangled at the stake before the fire is lit. Because they are women, they might elude the stake altogether by repenting, but they refuse. It's Inez. The nervous little bird is determined to die a martyr for her beliefs, and little Juana, I think, is just tired of living. The don will not permit his sister and niece to die alone, so he also refuses to repent.”
”Madness! These are ravings from a play written by a madman.”
”No, Cristo, this is no play. Life is sadder than any comedia. And the blood is real. This is a living nightmare.”
NINETY-SEVEN.
An auto-da-fe was not just a burning, but a grand show in which different levels of punishment were issued. And while all in the cell were to be punished at the auto-da-fe, none were to die at the stake.
Mateo warned me that no one in the cell could be trusted. Those who were not already spies for the Inquisition would become spies to reduce their punishment.
After a few days my advocate came to see me. He informed me of the sentence that Mateo had already advised me of. I pretended surprise at hearing that I would be spared the stake. Hoping that I did not sound contrite, I asked why I had been spared.
”The Lord acts in mysterious ways,” he said.
Auto-da-fe, act of faith.