ON THE ARRIVAL of the judge the mournful procession halted. A roaring echo had repeated after him and again repeated the cry which escaped from every mouth:
“Innocent! Innocent!”
Then complete silence fell on all. The people did not want to lose one syllable1 of what was about to be proclaimed.
Judge Jarriquez sat down on a stone seat, and then, while Minha, Benito, Manoel, and Fragoso stood round him, while Joam Dacosta clasped Yaquita to his heart, he first unraveled the last paragraph of the document by means of the number, and as the words appeared by the institution of the true letters for the cryptological ones, he divided and punctuated2 them, and then read it out in a loud voice. And this is what he read in the midst of profound silence:
Le véritable auteur du vol des diamants et de 43 251343251 343251 34 325 134 32513432 51 34 Ph yjslyddf dzxgas gz zqq ehx gkfndrxu ju gi
l’assassinat des soldats qui escortaient le convoi, 32513432513 432 5134325 134 32513432513 43 251343 ocytdxvksbx bhu ypohdvy rym huhpuydkjox ph etozsl
commis dans la nuit du vingt-deux janvier mil 251343 2513 43 2513 43 251343251 3432513 432 etnpmv ffov pd pajx hy ynojyggay meqynfu q1n
huit-cent vingt-six, n’est donc pas Joam Dacosta, 5134 3251 3425 134 3251 3432 513 4325 1343251 mvly fgsu zmqiz tlb qgyu gsqe uvb nrcc edgruzb
injustement condamné à mort, c’est moi, les misérable 34325134325 13432513 4 3251 3432 513 43 251343251 l4msyuhqpz drrgcroh e pqxu fivv rpl ph onthvddqf
employé de l’administration du district diamantin, 3432513 43 251343251343251 34 32513432 513432513 hqsntzh hh nfepmqkyuuexkto gz gkyuumfv ijdqdpzjq
out, moi seul, qui signe de mon vrai nom, Ortega. 432 513 4325 134 32513 43 251 3432 513 432513 syk rpl xhxq rym vkloh hh oto zvdk spp suvjhd.
“The real author of the robbery of the diamonds and of the murder of the soldiers who escorted the convoy3, committed during the night of the twenty-second of January, one thousand eight hundred and twenty-six, was thus not Joam Dacosta, unjustly condemned4 to death; it was I, the wretched servant of the Administration of the diamond district; yes, I alone, who sign this with my true name, Ortega.”
The reading of this had hardly finished when the air was rent with prolonged hurrahs.
What could be more conclusive5 than this last paragraph, which summarized the whole of the document, and proclaimed so absolutely the innocence6 of the fazender of Iquitos, and which snatched from the gallows7 this victim of a frightful8 judicial9 mistake!
Joam Dacosta, surrounded by his wife, his children, and his friends, was unable to shake the hands which were held out to him. Such was the strength of his character that a reaction occurred, tears of joy escaped from his eyes, and at the same instant his heart was lifted up to that Providence10 which had come to save him so miraculously11 at the moment he was about to offer the last expiation12 to that God who would not permit the accomplishment13 of that greatest of crimes, the death of an innocent man!
Yes! There could be no doubt as to the vindication14 of Joam Dacosta. The true author of the crime of Tijuco confessed of his own free will, and described the circumstances under which it had been perpetrated!
By means of the number Judge Jarriquez interpreted the whole of the cryptogram15.
And this was what Ortega confessed.
He had been the colleague of Joam Dacosta, employed, like him, at Tijuco, in the offices of the governor of the diamond arrayal. He had been the official appointed to accompany the convoy to Rio de Janeiro, and, far from recoiling16 at the horrible idea of enriching himself by means of murder and robbery, he had informed the smugglers of the very day the convoy was to leave Tijuco.
During the attack of the scoundrels, who awaited the convoy just beyond Villa17 Rica, he pretended to defend himself with the soldiers of the escort, and then, falling among the dead, he was carried away by his accomplices18. Hence it was that the solitary19 soldier who survived the massacre20 had reported that Ortega had perished in the struggle.
But the robbery did not profit the guilty man in the long run, for, a little time afterward21, he was robbed by those whom he had helped to commit the crime.
Penniless, and unable to enter Tijuco again, Ortega fled away to the provinces in the north of Brazil, to those districts of the Upper Amazon where the capitaes da mato are to be found. He had to live somehow, and so he joined this not very honorable company; they neither asked him who he was nor whence he came, and so Ortega became a captain of the woods, and for many years he followed the trade of a chaser of men.
During this time Torres, the adventurer, himself in absolute want, became his companion. Ortega and he became most intimate. But, as he had told Torres, remorse22 began gradually to trouble the scoundrel’s life. The remembrance of his crime became horrible to him. He knew that another had been condemned in his place! He knew subsequently that the innocent man had escaped from the last penalty, but that he would never be free from the shadow of the capital sentence! And then, during an expedition of his party for several months beyond the Peruvian frontier, chance caused Ortega to visit the neighborhood of Iquitos, and there in Joam Garral, who did not recognize him, he recognized Joam Dacosta.
Henceforth he resolved to make all the reparation he could for the injustice23 of which is old comrade had been the victim. He committed to the document all the facts relative to the crime of Tijuco, writing it first in French, which had been his mother’s native tongue, and then putting it into the mysterious form we know, his intention being to transmit it to the fazender of Iquitos, with the cipher24 by which it could be read.
Death prevented his completing his work of reparation. Mortally wounded in a scuffle with some negroes on the Madeira, Ortega felt he was doomed25. His comrade Torres was then with him. He thought he could intrust to his friend the secret which had so grievously darkened his life. He gave him the document, and made him swear to convey it to Joam Dacosta, whose name and address he gave him, and with his last breath he whispered the number 432513, without which the document would remain undecipherable.
Ortega dead, we know how the unworthy Torres acquitted27 himself of his mission, how he resolved to turn to his own profit the secret of which he was the possessor, and how he tried to make it the subject of an odious28 bargain.
Torres died without accomplishing his work, and carried his secret with him. But the name of Ortega, brought back by Fragoso, and which was the signature of the document, had afforded the means of unraveling the cryptogram, dtanks to the sagacity of Judge Jarriquez. Yes, the material proof sought after for so long was the incontestable witness of the innocence of Joam Dacosta, returned to life, restored to honor.
The cheers redoubled when the worthy26 magistrate29, in a loud voice, and for the edification of all, read from the document this terrible history.
And from that moment Judge Jarriquez, whoo possessed30 this indubitable proof, arranged with the chief of the police, and declined to allow Joam Dacosta, while waiting new instructions from Rio Janeiro, to stay in any prison but his own house.
There could be no difficulty about this, and in the center of the crowd of the entire population of Manaos, Joam Dacosta, accompanied by all his family, beheld31 himself conducted like a conquerer to the magistrate’s residence.
And in that minute the honest fazender of Iquitos was well repaid for all that he had suffered during the long years of exile, and if he was happy for his family’s sake more than for his own, he was none the less proud for his country’s sake that this supreme32 injustice had not been consummated33!
And in all this what had become of Fragoso?
Well, the good-hearted fellow was covered with caresses34! Benito, Manoel, and Minha had overwhelmed him, and Lina had by no means spared him. He did not know what to do, he defended himself as best he could. He did not deserve anything like it. Chance alone had done it. Were any thanks due to him for having recognized Torres as a captain of the woods? No, certainly not. As to his idea of hurrying off in search of the band to which Torres had belonged, he did not think it had been worth much, and as to the name of Ortega, he did not even know its value.
Gallant35 Fragoso! Whether he wished it or no, he had none the less saved Joam Dacosta!
And herein what a strange succession of different events all tending to the same end. The deliverance of Fragoso at the time when he was dying of exhaustion36 in the forest of Iquitos; the hospitable37 reception he had met with at the fazenda, the meeting with Torres on the Brazilian frontier, his embarkation38 on the jangada; and lastly, the fact that Fragoso had seen him somewhere before.
“Well, yes!” Fragoso ended by exclaiming; “but it is not to me that all this happiness is due, it is due to Lina!”
“To me?” replied the young mulatto.
“No doubt of it. Without the liana, without the idea of the liana, could I ever have been the cause of so much happiness?”
So that Fragoso and Lina were praised and petted by all the family, and by all the new friends whom so many trials had procured39 them at Manaos, need hardly be insisted on.
But had not Judge Jarriquez also had his share in this rehabilitation40 of an innocent man? If, in spite of all the shrewdness of his analytical41 talents, he had not been able to read the document, which was absolutely undecipherable to any one who had not got the key, had he not at any rate discovered the system on which the cryptogram was composed? Without him what could have been done with only the name of Ortega to reconstitute the number which the author of the crime and Torres, both of whom were dead, alone knew?
And so he also received abundant thanks.
Needless to say that the same day there was sent to Rio de Janeiro a detailed42 report of the whole affair, and with it the original document and the cipher to enable it to be read. New instructions from the minister of justice had to be waited for, though there could be no doubt that they would order the immediate43 discharge of the prisoner. A few days would thus have to be passed at Manaos, and then Joam Dacosta and his people, free from all constraint44, and released from all apprehension45, would take leave of their host to go on board once more and continue their descent of the Amazon to Para, where the voyage was intended to terminate with the double marriage of Minha and Manoel and Lina and Fragoso.
Four days afterward, on the fourth of September, the order of discharge arrived. The document had been recognized as authentic46. The handwriting was really that of Ortega, who had been formerly47 employed in the diamond district, and there could be no doubt that the confession48 of his crime, with the minutest details that were given, had been entirely49 written with his own hand.
The innocence of the convict of Villa Rica was at length admitted. The rehabilitation of Joam Dacosta was at last officially proclaimed.
That very day Judge Jarriquez dined with the family on board the giant raft, and when evening came he shook hands with them all. Touching50 were the adieus, but an engagement was made for them to see him again on their return at Manaos, and later on the fazenda of Iquitos.
On the morning of the morrow, the fifth of September, the signal for departure was given. Joam Dacosta and Yaquita, with their daughter and sons, were on the deck of the enormous raft. The jangada had its moorings slackened off and began to move with the current, and when it disappeared round the bend of the Rio Negro, the hurrahs of the whole population of Manaos, who were assembled on the bank, again and again re-echoed across the stream.
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syllable
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| n.音节；vt.分音节 | |
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punctuated
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| v.（在文字中）加标点符号，加标点( punctuate的过去式和过去分词 )；不时打断某事物 | |
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convoy
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| vt.护送，护卫，护航；n.护送；护送队 | |
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condemned
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| adj. 被责难的, 被宣告有罪的 动词condemn的过去式和过去分词 | |
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conclusive
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| adj.最后的，结论的；确凿的，消除怀疑的 | |
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innocence
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| n.无罪；天真；无害 | |
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gallows
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| n.绞刑架，绞台 | |
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frightful
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| adj.可怕的；讨厌的 | |
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judicial
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| adj.司法的，法庭的，审判的，明断的，公正的 | |
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providence
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| n.深谋远虑，天道，天意；远见；节约；上帝 | |
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miraculously
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| ad.奇迹般地 | |
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expiation
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| n.赎罪，补偿 | |
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accomplishment
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| n.完成，成就，（pl.）造诣，技能 | |
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vindication
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| n.洗冤，证实 | |
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cryptogram
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| n.密码 | |
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recoiling
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| v.畏缩( recoil的现在分词 )；退缩；报应；返回 | |
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villa
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| n.别墅，城郊小屋 | |
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accomplices
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| 从犯，帮凶，同谋( accomplice的名词复数 ) | |
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solitary
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| adj.孤独的，独立的，荒凉的；n.隐士 | |
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massacre
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| n.残杀，大屠杀；v.残杀，集体屠杀 | |
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afterward
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| adv.后来；以后 | |
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remorse
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| n.痛恨，悔恨，自责 | |
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injustice
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| n.非正义，不公正，不公平，侵犯（别人的）权利 | |
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cipher
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| n.零；无影响力的人；密码 | |
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doomed
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| 命定的 | |
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worthy
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| adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的 | |
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acquitted
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| 宣判…无罪( acquit的过去式和过去分词 )； 使（自己）作出某种表现 | |
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odious
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| adj.可憎的，讨厌的 | |
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magistrate
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| n.地方行政官，地方法官，治安官 | |
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possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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beheld
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| v.看，注视( behold的过去式和过去分词 )；瞧；看呀；（叙述中用于引出某人意外的出现）哎哟 | |
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supreme
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| adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的 | |
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consummated
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| v.使结束( consummate的过去式和过去分词 )；使完美；完婚；（婚礼后的）圆房 | |
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caresses
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| 爱抚，抚摸( caress的名词复数 ) | |
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gallant
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| adj.英勇的，豪侠的；(向女人)献殷勤的 | |
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exhaustion
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| n.耗尽枯竭，疲惫，筋疲力尽，竭尽，详尽无遗的论述 | |
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hospitable
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| adj.好客的；宽容的；有利的，适宜的 | |
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embarkation
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| n. 乘船, 搭机, 开船 | |
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procured
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| v.（努力）取得， （设法）获得( procure的过去式和过去分词 )；拉皮条 | |
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rehabilitation
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| n.康复，悔过自新，修复，复兴，复职，复位 | |
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analytical
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| adj.分析的；用分析法的 | |
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detailed
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| adj.详细的，详尽的，极注意细节的，完全的 | |
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immediate
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| adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的 | |
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constraint
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| n.(on)约束，限制；限制(或约束)性的事物 | |
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apprehension
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| n.理解，领悟；逮捕，拘捕；忧虑 | |
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authentic
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| a.真的，真正的；可靠的，可信的，有根据的 | |
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formerly
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| adv.从前，以前 | |
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confession
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| n.自白，供认，承认 | |
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entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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50
touching
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| adj.动人的，使人感伤的 | |
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