Joam Dacosta was pondering over his whole career. He again lived his
past life from the moment when, as an orphan, he had set foot in
Tijuco. There his zeal had raised him high in the offices of the
governor-general, into which he had been admitted when still very
young. The future smiled on him; he would have filled some important
position. Then this sudden catastrophe; the robbery of the diamond
convoy, the massacre of the escort, the suspicion directed against
him as the only official who could have divulged the secret of the
expedition, his arrest, his appearance before the jury, his
conviction in spite of all the efforts of his advocate, the last
hours spent in the condemned cell at Villa Rica, his escape under
conditions which betokened almost superhuman courage, his flight
through the northern provinces, his arrival on the Peruvian frontier,
and the reception which the starving fugitive had met with from the
hospitable fazender Magalha?s.
The prisoner once more passed in review these events, which had so
cruelly marred his life.
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