“The heroine,” he said, “is a married woman, who meets in Cintra a man who is destined to prove fatal to her peace,—the Count of Monte Redondo. Her husband has lost at play a hundred contos de reis,[3] which he is unable to pay. His name is dishonored, and he himself in danger of being thrown into prison. The heroine, rendered desperate, hurries to the ruined castle inhabited by the count, and there reveals to him the misfortune that has befallen her husband. The count wraps himself in his cloak and departs; at the moment in which the police are about to lay hands upon the husband, he arrives upon the scene. Then follows an affecting scene by moonlight. The count discovers himself, and throws a purse, full of gold, at the feet of the officers, exclaiming, ‘Satiate yourselves, vultures!’”
“A fine situation!” said the counsellor.
“Towards the end,” continued Ernesto, “the plot thickens. The Count of Monte Redondo and the heroine fall in love with each other; the husband discovers it, throws at the feet of the count the gold he had received from him, and kills his wife.”
“How?” they all ask.
“He throws her over a precipice, at the end of the fifth act. The count sees him, rushes to her assistance, and falls over with her. The husband folds his arms, and gives way to a burst of demoniac laughter. That is how I have arranged it.”
He paused, breathless, and glanced around him with eyes languid and colorless as those of a fish.
“It is a well-planned work, in which the grand passions elbow each other,” said the counsellor, stroking his bald cranium with his hand. “I offer my congratulations to Senhor Ledesma.”
“But what the deuce does that director want?” said Julião, who had been listening to the conversation, silent and attentive. “Does he perchance wish to place a precipice on a first floor furnished by Garde?”
Ernesto turned towards him. “No, Senhor Zuzarte,” he said, in mellifluous accents; “he wishes the catastrophe to take place in a salon. So that,” he added with resignation, “I have been obliged to rewrite the whole of the fifth act. In order to be obliging, I had to spend the night in vigil, and to drink three cups of coffee.”
“Take care, Senhor Ledesma!” said the counsellor, stretching out his hand with a warning gesture. “Take care! one should be prudent in the use of stimulants.”