"Sir," said the doomed man, "before to-morrow, before the hour of my
execution, may I pass a few moments with Padre Passanha, whom I ask
you to tell?"
"It will be forbidden."
"May I see my family, and embrace for a last time my wife and
children?"
"You shall see them."
"Thank you, sir," answered Joam; "and now keep guard over that
window; it will not do for them to take me out of here against my
will."
And then the chief of the police, after a respectful bow, retired
with the warder and the soldiers.
The doomed man, who had now but a few hours to live, was left alone.
CHAPTER XVIII
FRAGOSO
AND SO the order had come, and, as Judge Jarriquez had foreseen, it
was an order requiring the immediate execution of the sentence
pronounced on Joam Dacosta. No proof had been produced; justice must
take its course.
It was the very day--the 31st of August, at nine o'clock in the
morning of which the condemned man was to perish on the gallows.
The death penalty in Brazil is generally commuted except in the case
of negroes, but this time it was to be suffered by a white man.
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