"Oh, who might have power To utter, the dreams that man dreams!" "But I am a-feared, that I may feel" "The greatest shame Of them not believing me." "Idle Feels The evils of the world" "And particularly Those of Portugal" "The Pig, it is very sure, Will flee unto the desert" "The Lion, and its roar" "Shows he bears a wound From that King Concealed." "WHO ARE YOU?" "An adaptation of Frei Luis de Sousa A play in three acts by Almeida Garret" "Preceded by Sebastianist Dreams and Nightmares by Maria de Noronha" "Photography" "Sound" "Music" "Wardrobe and assistant director" "Production Director" "Produced with the financial support of" "Produced and Directed By" "I, Sebastian," "King of Portugal, was born on the 20th of January 1554 on the feast day of the saint whose name I bear." ""Presage I fear, the clear hope..."" "Prince John, my father, never met me." "He died of "hebetated passion" 19 days before I was born, at the age of 16 years and almost seven months." "And before him, and at a very young age, had died all of his eight brothers, children of my grandfather," "King Dom John iii, the Pious." "When I was born the Portuguese lived in indolence, with luxury and wretchedly." "Weakened by the bloodsucking India, dazed by the miracles of the Discoveries, corrupted by pest, by drugs and sicknesses that came from the Orient, they had lost all notion of reality." "Sickness had entered into their faith, ecstasy generated cruelty, and the greatest perfidies were virtues." ""Sancta Santis"." "And Castile was eyeing the Kingdom." "Then, when I was born, the people cried out hosannas, and called me "the Desired one"." "And you, oh well-born security Of Lusitania, old freedom," "And no less certain hope Of increase in the small Christianity," "You, the new fear of the Moorish lance, Fatal marvel of our time..." "Fatal marvel of our time Given to the world by God" "(may you rule everything to give most of the world to God)." "My mother, Dona Joanna of Austria, never felt happy in Portugal." "She was haughty and distant, and received hatred from the Portuguese." "She abandoned me before I was four months old." "I was entrusted to my grandparents, Dona Catarina and Dom John III." "She fled into the arms of her brother, my uncle, Philip, son of the Emperor Charles V and future king of Castile, for whom she held an incestuous passion." "My grandfather the king was tough, correct and simple; a mediocre being." "They told me that at the age of twelve he had been given a convent as a toy." "Altars, images, friars and prayers were his childhood games." "Piousness enslaved his spirit." "A veritable crowned religious leader." "He brought the Jesuits from Spain, fearful inspectors of intellectual activity." "And with the rivers of money he sent to the Pope, e finally managed to establish the Inquisition in Portugal, in 1597." "The "dogs of God" came to light the fire in which the Jew burnt." "Autos de Fe were his favorite pastime and the whole court followed his example." "People became sleepwalkers and blind due to the religious habits." "The word of God drove men insane and made them monsters." "Around midnight on Friday the 1 1th of July 1557, struck down by apoplexy, my grandfather Dom John III died." "I was three years old." "In the struggle for the regency of the Portuguese court, the Queen, my grandmother, Dona Catarina, defeated the king's brother," "Cardinal Inquisitor Dom Henry." "Withdrawn from the world in the Convent of Yuste, but not from political intrigue, he was preparing the throne of Portugal for Prince Charles, the son of Philip Il," "King of Spain and my uncle." ""Mientras que el Senor le diese vida tiene poco que temer"" "and that "avisase de Io que parecia que se debia hacer porque Io que en ello mandase se obedeceria por ella"." "Cardinal Dom Henry plotted so much that my upbringing was granted to him, followed by power, when he forced my grandmother to give him regency over the Courts of the 12th of December 1562." "May Our Lord the King, when he turns nine years old, withdraw from among women and give himself to men." "May the King dress as a Portuguese, eat as a Portuguese, ride as a Portuguese," "speak as a Portuguese, may all his acts be Portuguese" "and may he do this so that he may have great love for the realm and all things of it." "And when the learning was complete" "I handed over Power to the little King." "On the 20 th of January 1568, on the very day he turned fourteen." "Thus had ruled the courts of 1562," "and thus I had sworn:" "And with no conditions, and I will always serve and obey this gentleman," "as his good and loyal servant." "I was a boy who was shorter rather than taller, red-haired, with blue eyes, with my white complexion slightly tinted with pockmarks, and the thick lower lips of the Hapsburgs, whose blood I had from my mother." "I was restless, anxious, sick and unbalanced." "The whole of my right side was larger than my left." "My hand, my arm, my side and my leg." "And my foot had one toe too many." "My legs were too long for the size of my body." "I had a great horror of women, and there were so many stories about me that the least hurtful was to say that chastity came easy to me." "Mad, unbalanced, an abnormal being." "But at the same time, I was the symbolic representative of the aspirations of a people against the covetousness of Castile and against the onslaughts of the infidels." "The ardent Muslim fanaticism on the doorstep, the bitter Calvinist and Lutheran winds blowing down from the north." "Genius is resolute without prudence." "My walk is a gallop." "I do not tread the earth;" "I fly." "I have infinite hunger and infinite thirst for a greater life." "I serve God." "I have a mission." "A posthumous son of the Middle Ages, supinely foolish." "A romantic piece of donkey." "Because I am chaste and ardent, I have suffered from spermatorrhea, since I was 1 1 years old, and because I am a diabetic I turned a common urethritis into something chronic." "They gave me cinnamon tea and very hot food to relieve the pain." "A great miracle, or a great catastrophe, something extravagant and never before seen, that is my only desire, my only ambition." "To lay the whole of Barbary subject to me, to lay waste the walls of Constantinople, to be Caliph of Egypt, to bring the venerable Palestine to heel." "And I took a vow of chastity to make this undertaking while still pure." "To take Portugal into Africa." "To impose faith upon the Moorish infidel by arms, to stop the Turkish advance and to bring bread and the cow to this nation ruined by pest and by the rotten corpse of the overseas empire." "I called all the right-seeing counselors cowards;" "I managed to get a Papal Bull" "And from my uncle Philip of Spain:" "money, men and arms." "He gave me almost nothing:" ""The color of fear, the color of prudence, the color of ambition!"" "Then I invented money and I invented soldiers." "I obtained loans by will or by force." "I granted tributes, I withdrew deposits from the alms of orphans, of the deceased and the absent, and for 250 thousand cruzados I exempted the new Christians from confiscation for ten years," "I took one third of the ecclesiastical rents from the clergy" "I made salt and bread monopolies," "I brought forward rents of state, I sold positions," "I enthusiastically practiced a "disused fleecing"." "I ordered recruitments and pressings." "Single men or married, boys and old men, everything would do." "But my mandatories knew no scruples only those who had no money to pay them were not enlisted." "Women would sell their skirts and their honor for two cruzados to save their sons and husbands:" "An army of only nine thousand men, wretched souls, beggars and lost men the dregs of the nation." "And children, many children." "Young noblemen of 12, 10 and 9, because many of the nobles, due to cowardice or laziness, thought it better to remain in the kingdom and send their sons on the festive adventure." "I bought three thousand mercenaries from Germany, as many more from Castile, and half as many from Italy." "The army was as wretched as it was stately and it camped for months on end in Lisbon, in tents of the finest silk." "Lisbon sang, laughed and danced, preparing itself for the African adventure." "Orgies, drunkenness, fights, oaths and dishonesties." "Women roamed the streets, in bands, provocatively dressed:" "buckles and rosettes on their hats, beads, crescents, necklaces and charms of gold, studded with diamonds from Rekkan, sapphires from Pegre, pearls from Borneo, cameos from Germany, sables and minks from Moscow," "silks from Persia and Italy." "And the noblemen, even more ruined than they were, in gala dress, with velvet, satin or damask doublets, adorned with braids and lace and trimmings of gold." "Their weapons were works of art:" "inlaid bucklers, daggers with enameled handles, precious two-handed swords and sabers, they strutted around in perfumes, showing their coats of arms on their steel breastplates, lifting their capes with the broad of their swords, resting one hand on their cups while the other, at ease," "held their plumed hats, when, in amorous bows, they spoke." ""Saint Anton, bless them!"" "cried the townsfolk when finally, on the 25 th of June, my armada raised the sails." "At sea the party continued, taking refreshment in Cadiz, where we spent six days watching bulls." "Reaching Africa, the experienced and wise captains warned me not to leave the coastline and to take support from the armada." "I insulted them and opposed such cowardice." "To enter Morocco, defeat the enemy in his house and, in a sudden rush, to go to Fez and crown myself Emperor." "The King!" "To die, yes, but slowly." "Is there no other way?" "Heaven!" "On the 4 th of August 1578, under the midday sun on the field of Alcacer Quibir," "I ordered no one to attack unless the King gave the command." "But in one of those intellectual eclipses, proper to epileptics, an absence, an obnubilation, a dim spell, I forgot to do so," "A troupe of Africans, rolling like a breaking wave, engulfed everything and smashed everyone." "The rout was complete." "Eight thousand Christians were killed in the slaughter;" "that which remained of men in Portugal was lost in Africa." "The battle in which three kings died lasted a little more than an hour, but no one, no one at all, saw me fall or die:" "I became obscurely lost." "I lived for centuries in the Portuguese soul." ""Un bel morir, tutta la vita onora"." "They stripped the dead bare, they killed the wounded who were incurable, and thus unable to be ransomed." "They made captives of all the others, whether maimed or whole, and thus they were led in chains like cattle to the market." "A kingdom annihilated through shock and suffering, ruined by warlike adventure, was left skinned by the price of the ransoms." "As a fatal consequence of this defeat," "Portugal lost its independence two years later." "And for two years and until he died, the kingdom was in the hands of my grandfather's brother, the old and senile Cardinal Dom Henry, the fierce inquisitor, that "sack of soft weakness", as the people called him." "Like a child, he continued to bend over and suck at the breasts of Maria Mota, who had always fed him." "He died in a state of great affliction, feeling the greed of the heirs to the throne." "One of them, the boldest, Dom Anthony Prior of Crato, gave orders to the simple folk and the evildoers." "Rapes, violence, treasures and church altars sacked and looted, temples profaned..." "Then my uncle Philip II of Castile decided to occupy Portugal and fulfill his ambition." "He sent the Portuguese man Cristopher of Moura, to buy the Portuguese nobility." "And he sent the Duke of Alba, his general, to easily rout the poor army of the Prior of Crato" "In the Courts of Tomar in 1581, he crowned himself" "Philip II of Spain, I of Portugal and stated about his new kingdom:" ""Yo Io herede, yo Io compre yo Io conquiste, para quitar dudas"." "I, Sebastian, once the Desired king, the wretched Prince." "So little time on the earth and so much to carry out." "When the Portuguese soul broke out in a sob of agony, the legend of my return founded the root of the mystical Portuguese edifice." "And on a misty morning I shall return, the Portuguese Christ." "King Redeemer of the mud, to save the nation, to defeat the Castilian enemy and extend the Empire to boundless lands." "I, the Concealed king." "All his body on the left side, shorter than on the right." "A very short body from the shoulders to the waist and very long from the waist to the knees." "On the little toe of his right foot a verruca that grows like a sixth toe." "On one shoulder, a wart the size of a coin." "He has one tooth missing on his right jaw." "He suffers from the flow of semen." "He has freckles on his face and hands, and an Austrian lip." "He also has a secret wart, which will be revealed when it is necessary." "A mark the size of a musket shot on his left arm." "Another from a wound on his head." "Another over his right eyebrow..." "On the other side of the river Tagos Opposite Lisbon" "Almada, July 28Th 1599" ""In that joyful and blind mistake of the soul" "That fate does not let last for long..."" "A mistake of even a brief instant should be supreme felicity in this world." "And what does it matter that fortune does not let it last for long?" "One lived; one can die." "Oh!" "That he should at least not know it, not suspect the state in which I live... fear and continual terrors have not let me enjoy one single moment of all the immense happiness that his love gives me." "Love, happiness ..." "Oh!" "How wretched I am!" " Telmo!" " Are you reading, my lady?" "No." "There is little daylight." "It is a pretty book, by your favorite, our book, Telmo." "A book for ladies and for gentlemen: for everyone." "There is no other." "With due respect for that of the word of God!" "That..." "I don't know Latin like Manuel de Sousa Coutinho like his father before him, a great man!" "Many letters, much gallant practice." "People like him exist no more..." "The word of God thus expressed in another language, that nobody understands..." "The English merchant in the Rua Nova has told me things that seem fitting to me..." "And, God forgive me, I believe the man is a heretic, of the new faith of Germany or England." "Telmo, ever since the time that  was a long time ago, a different time." "I was a child, a little bigger than Maria." "Lady Dona Maria, she is taller now." "She has grown so much, and so quickly, these last two months..." "Thirteen years old, she is almost a lady... poor girl." "Daughter of my soul!" "Telmo, I don't know how to give you advice." "I was a child when I met you, when I got married... the first time." "Madam, do not remind me of everything I used to be." "Are you not the same today, or even more so?" "Is there less trust, respect, love and caring than that to which was accustomed the faithful squire of my lord" "Dom John of Portugal, may God grant glory to his soul?" "Does he grant it?" "No, madam, surely not." " Well?" " Nothing." "Maria does not hear, does not believe, and does not know anything except what you tell her." "You are her mistress, her chambermaid..." " Do not speak with her of such things." " Of what the Englishman told me, of what they have in their language about the Sacred Scriptures?" "And of so many other high matters, not of her time and not of her sex;" "that child always wants to know, is always questioning." "She is my only daughter and she is not  a very strong child." "She will become stronger." "Having her here, away from the sick airs of Lisbon." "Daughter of my heart!" "And of mine." "At the beginning she was a child that I could not...   it is true, I couldn't stand seeing her ... seeing her was like seeing ..." "God forgive me!" "..." "But she began to grow, to look at me with those eyes ... to be gentle to me, an angel of beauty and kindness." "I love her more than her father ... more than her mother!" " Telmo!" " One thing I am sure that we will see is who in this house loves our little girl more." "Your omens and prophecies..." " Let us leave off from futures..." " That are not good." " And pasts as well..." " Those also." " Maria possesses an understanding..." " She understands everything!" " More than is wise." " Sometimes." " She must be moderated." " That is what I do." " Don't tell her..." " I don't tell her anything that cannot and should not be known by an honest damsel worthy of better..." "Better what?" "Being born in a better state." "You wanted to hear it..." "It is said." "Oh, Telmo!" "God forgive you for the evil you do to me." "Lady Madalena, my mistress, my lady..." "Order me to cut out this bitch of a tongue that cannot be tamed." "Oh!" "Madam, madam!" "She is your daughter, she is the daughter of Manuel de Sousa Coutinho, a noble of such excellence and good lineage as any who take themselves for better in this realm, in the whole of Spain." "My Lady Maria is of the blood of Vilhenas and Sousas, she needs no more, no more..." "Shut up, shut up, for Jesus Christ's sake." "My Lady!" "Stand up, Telmo." "It will be the last time." "You were the squire and friend of my master, Dom John of Portugal, companion in work and in glory to his illustrious father, the noble count of Vimioso." "I came into this most respected family afterwards;" "I found you part of it, I took you in the same friendship as the others..." "I saw and admired what you know of life and of the world, what your heart saw (...)" "I myself entrusted you with such authority in this house, over myself... that others might find strange..." " Emend it, madam." " I neither need nor want to." "After the calamitous African adventure that left me a widow, orphan, without anyone ... at the age of seventeen!" "in you, Telmo, in you only I found kindness and protection." "You took the place of my father." "And I (save in one thing) have obeyed you as a daughter." "Oh, madam, madam!" "That issue on which you strayed from my advice..." "There was a greater power than my strength..." "Dom John remained in that battle with his father, with the finest flower of our people." "I mourned his loss;" "I respected his memory, for seven years." "Unbelieving," "I sent you to search throughout those Barbary coasts, through all the prisons of Fez and Morocco." "Huge quantities of wealth and credits were spent;" "the ambassadors of Portugal and Castile, the priests of Redemption, religious people and merchants, all were entreated to bring back the slightest indication that might deny the terrible news of the battle of Alcacer." "Everything was in vain; and no one else held a remnant of doubt..." "Except for me." "The doubt of a faithful servant." "You say it with your heart, but it torments mine." "And without foundation." "To what holds this your belief of seven years and now fourteen more ... twenty-one years?" " To words, to the formal words in that letter, written on the very dawn of the day of the battle, and given to Friar Jorge, who brought it to you." ""Alive or dead..."" "I have not forgotten one letter of those words;" "I know what man my master was to have written them in vain:" ""Alive or dead, Madalena," "I shall see you at least once more in this world."" "Alive he did not come, more to the worse!" "And dead... his soul, his figure..." "Jesus, man!" "He hasn't appeared to you, I see." "No, heaven forbid!" "I know he hasn't." "He would not leave without also appearing to his old squire." "My God, Telmo!" "Don't upset me any further." "Are you not happy in the arms of the man you have always loved above all others?" "My poor master..." "respect, devotion, loyalty, you had everything for him..." "But love!" "It is not ours to give or take love." "The jealousness that my master never had, I have myself... here is the bare naked truth." "I can't, I cannot bear..." "Manuel de Sousa Coutinho is an honored gentleman, a good Portuguese..." "but he is not, and never will be, that mirror of chivalry and goodness that was my noble master." "Ah, my blessed master!" "I decided to marry Manuel de Sousa with the consent of the family of my first husband." "We have lived safely, in peace... for fourteen years." "God has blessed us in the beauty, in the admirable gifts of this angel..." "And you, you, my Telmo, who are so hers, you intend to have more love for her than our very selves." "No, no I do not!" "You do!" "And it is you who are raising this ghost, the shadow of whom would be enough to condemn mother and daughter to eternal dishonor!" "Have you thought about the harm you are doing?" "Your mysterious words, your frequent allusions to this wretched king, Dom Sebastian, for whom his wretched people still wait those continuous omens of an imminent disgrace upon our family..." "Can you not see that you are arousing the curiosity of this child?" "You find I know not what painful pleasure in keeping that fatal doubt alive and suspended." "If such a terror ever enters that soul, who will take it out?" "What will become of her and of us?" "Aren't you losing her, aren't you killing her... aren't you killing my daughter on me?" " She will not die." "Thrice no." "By the faith of an honorable squire, Lady Madalena, my mouth will not open more;" "I will save my angel from Heaven!" "Today is the last day of our lives that we talk of such things." "The last." "Go and see what she is doing;" "that she is not still reading." "And then go to St. Paul's, or send someone if you cannot..." "To the Dominican convent?" "At once." "Tell my brother-in-law, Friar Jorge Coutinho, that I am worried about my husband's delay in Lisbon." "It's almost night." "The sea is so still..." "there is almost no wind," "a breeze that caresses..." "One cannot trust the Tagus:" "From one moment to the next a north wind rises... and here on the Cacilhas point!" "He is a good seaman... a knight of Malta!" "There is still plague in Lisbon, the air is not yet clean... and the public alterations, this ill will between Castilians and Portuguese!" "The unalterable character of Manuel de Sousa..." "I've been here for over half an hour on the terrace sitting looking at the river while Telmo is here conversing with my mother, without caring about me." "What about the book you promised me?" ""There they stand, face to face," ""The two brave fields"" "And that of the hidden island where is King Sebastian, who will come one very misty day..." "As he did not die..." "My dear child, you say such things!" "You have not listened to your uncle Friar Jorge and your uncle Lopo de Sousa!" "The common people, poor things, imagine these chimeras to find consolation in their disgrace." "The voice of the people is the voice of God, my mother:" "they believe this so strongly that there must be something to it." "Except for my good Telmo here, no one in this house likes to hear that our brave king, our blessed king Dom Sebastian, did not die." "My father, who is a good Portuguese, cannot bear these Castilians it is even said that it is what he most speaks about ... on hearing doubts about the death of my dear king Dom Sebastian, he changes his countenance, becomes thoughtful and sullen;" "it seems like he would be outraged if the poor king returned." "Oh, mother, he does not support King Philip, does he?" "Always imagining things that are beyond your age!" "That is what upsets us, your father and I;" "I would like to see you happier and about things less..." "You see, you see?" "Even my mother doesn't like it." "Even worse, she gets upset." "She is crying..." "My dear mother!" "Go, Telmo, go;" "I do not want to talk any more, or to hear of that battle, nor of stories, nor of any of those things." "She has such a fever today, my God!" "Her hands are burning..." "Mother, I am fine, I am well." "God willing, you will live for many years." "Why, if you love me so much..." "are you always startled over me?" "We adore you so!" "It is not that, it is not that;" "I have read in your eyes..." "I read in one's eyes, I do!" "And in the stars in heaven as well, and I know things..." "What nonsense!" "A girl with your good sense, and God-fearing..." "I don't want to hear you talk like this." "Maria, come here." "Tell me about your garden." "What are these?" "Everything has withered... everything has been destroyed by the heat..." "Poppies that make one sleep." "I picked them to put under my pillow tonight;" "I want to sleep soundly," "I don't want to dream, it makes me see things... extraordinary and confused things..." "Maria, imagining is dreaming, and you daydream, my daughter." "God put us in this world to keep vigil and to work, always with our thoughts on Him, but without us finding strangeness in the things of life that surround us." "You are our only daughter, all your father's hopes rest in you." "And I can't fulfill them." "But what can I do?" "You read too much, it tires you, you don't enjoy yourself, you are not..." "What I am... only I know that, mother..." "No, I don't know:" "I don't know anything;" "I am not what I should be..." "Why shouldn't I have a brother who is a gallant and brave lad, able to command my father's regiments, able to take up one of those lances with which our grandfathers ran through India, carrying Turks and gentiles before them!" "A beautiful young man who was the very portrait of that noble knight of Malta." "How handsome was my father!" "How good he looked in black!" "And the cross!" "Why did he leave, mother, why did he not remain in that holy religion, sailing on the high seas and putting the infidels to flight before the flag of the Cross?" "My child, my child!" "It was not God's will." "How I wish that he would arrive now from Lisbon!" "It is so late..." "God bless this house!" "Good afternoon, uncle Jorge!" "The blessing of God be upon you, child." "Welcome, brother!" "I am worried..." "I have had some news from Lisbon." "Do not be alarmed;" "but you should be forewarned." "The governors wish to leave the city..." "a veritable whim..." "After having faced the force of the plague while stuck inside, now, that it is almost over, they wish to take a change of air." "The poor things!" "The poor common folk!" "What else are their lives worth?" "Plagues and disasters." "If I were to govern, duty to God and to the king would command me to stay until the end, where misery was at its greatest and danger most present, in order to attend the needy with medicine and shelter." "Does not 'King' mean the common father to everyone?" "Teodora, my damsel!" "The world is not like that;" "what can we do?" "Change it." "I am afraid for this child." "Me too." "This our good town of Almada has been chosen, due to its healthy waters, clean air and splendid view, for the court and the buen retiro of our five kings, the governors of Portugal for Philip of Castile, may God protect him." " Let them come." " What else can we do?" "Our poor Convent of St. Paul must lodge the Lord Archbishop Dom Miguel de Castro, president of the Government." "He is a good prelate, except that he disturbs our humble peace." "You are worse off..." "You and Manuel de Sousa, because the other four governors wish to come to this house!" "We will close the doors to them." "My father's regiment has over six hundred men we will defend ourselves." "Is this not tyranny?" "I would love to see anything like a battle!" "Silly girl!" "What harm have we done to the Count of Sabugal and the other governors for them to show us this disrespect?" "Are there no more houses out there?" "Do they not know that there are ladies in this household, a family... that I am here?" "It is my father's voice!" "My father has arrived!" " I can't hear anything." " Neither can l, Maria." "It is my father..." "And he is angry!" "My lord has arrived;" "I saw the brig come in just now." "Thank you, Miranda." "It is extraordinary..." "She sees and hears from such distances..." "A terrible sign at this age and with this physical constitution!" "Miranda!" "What's the matter with you?" "You never come into the house like this." "The news would be strange were it not for the times we live in." "We must leave this house at once, Madalena." "Very good, father!" "Very bad!" "There is no other way." "Telmo has gone to tell your ladies-in-waiting what they have to do." "It is eight o'clock, four hours to midnight;" "until then the little that I wish to save will be saved... they aren't coming until the morning." "Is it true that Luis de Moura and the other governors..." "Luis de Moura is a scoundrel:" "he does as he is." "The Archbishop is..." "what the others want him to be." "But the Count of Sabugal, the Count of Santa Cruz, who ought to consider who they are, have taken this hateful, vile charge..." "of oppressing their kin in the name of a foreign king." "Oh!" "What people, what Portuguese noblemen!" "I will give them a lesson like tyrants in this land have not seen for a long time." "My noble father!" "You show them what a true Portuguese is made of." "What will you do against these powerful men?" "They already hate you for being better than them." "What will they do if you give them a pretext?" "Manuel, my husband, Manuel de Sousa, upon our love..." "Your wife is right." "Be prudent, and think of your daughter." "I think of everything." "Where will we go, all of a sudden at this time of night?" "The only place we can go:" "the house is yours, Madalena." "Which one?" "The one next to the Convent of St. Paul?" " Jesus help me!" " You are doing the right thing:" "the house is big and in good state of repair, it still has almost everything." "And for me, for all of us priests, this is a great joy!" "Almost under the same roof." "There you have a Chapel of Our Lady of Devotion, the most devoted and most beautiful in the whole church..." " I wish I were there." " It is time." "Listen to me, listen:" "is there no other way?" "Which way, madam?" "That house..." "I can't face it..." "I need to speak to you alone." " Friar Jorge, go with Maria." " Come, uncle," "I want to see if there's room for my books and my papers..." "I'll show you them in the other house..." "But keep it secret!" "Silly girl!" "The world will find out that there is still a Portuguese man left in Portugal." "I have never known an occasion on which I disagreed with what you wanted;" "I am prepared to obey you always, blindly." "But, husband of my soul..." "not that house, don't take me to that house!" "Because it belonged to your first husband?" "I always respected Dom John of Portugal," "I honor his memory, for you, for him and for me;" "and I am not aware of ever fearing sheltering under the same roof." "You lived there with him?" "I am not jealous of a past that does not belong to me." "The present is mine, all mine, dear Madalena..." "Let us speak no more of this:" "we must leave, and now." "You do not know... you do not know of the violence, the constraint of my soul, the terror... having to go into that house." "It is like going back into his power, and being taken out of your arms oh, forgive me, forgive me... there I will find the shadow of Dom John, threatening me with a sword that crosses between us, between my daughter and myself." "I will die in that fatal house;" "I won't be there for three days, three hours even without all the calamities of the world befalling us." "Manuel, husband of my soul, upon our love I beg of you, for our daughter's sake..." "Let us go anywhere else, but not to that house!" "There is only one righteous fear, Madalena, the fear of God, there are no specters that might appear to us except those of the evil deeds we do." "What do you have on your conscience that makes you fear them?" "For those who walk before God the Earth holds no fright, nor Hell horrors that might challenge them." "We shall pray for the soul of John of Portugal in the devout chapel that is a part of your house;" "and do not fear that the soul that is in Heaven will come to pursue us in this world, because he died as a martyr at the hands of the infidels, in a holy battle, fighting for God and for his King." "Lady Madalena de Vilhena, remember who you are and from whom you come, madam... and do not take away my peace of mind and strength of heart, because I need them whole at this time." " What are you going to do?" " I have told you:" "I am going to set an example for the people that will enlighten them..." "My father died in falling disastrously upon his own sword." "May I die in the flames set by my own hands." "Let it be understood in Portugal that a man of honor and courage, no matter how powerful the tyranny is, can always face up to it," "losing his love for base and passing things." "Two sparks can destroy all these things in a moment..." "This wretched life can be blown out in even less time." "My God, my God!" "The portrait of my husband!" "Save that portrait!" "Your excellencies may come whenever you like." "Palace Of Dom John Of Portugal Portrait Room" "August 4th 1399" ""Child and girl they led me from my father's house"" "my mother says that she doesn't understand the book;" "I do." "Here there is neither child nor girl;" "my faithful squire, Telmo Pais," ""do what thou art commanded"." "Do not reply, else we will argue, there will be a row and my mother will awake." "Poor thing!" "We have been here for a week and it is the first good night's sleep I have had." "The palace aflame, the people shouting, the pealing of the bells, so grand and sublime, a spectacle the likes of which I have never seen so majestic!" "My poor mother was terrified, she can't take her eyes off it:" "she goes to close them and sleep and says she sees those flames curling into smoke reaching into the air and devouring everything with the fury of Hell..." "The portrait of my father, her favorite, dressed as a Knight of Malta, she cannot be consoled about the fact that it wasn't saved for her." "She, who doesn't believe in omens, now can't get it out of her head that the loss of the portrait is the final foreboding of some unexpected but certain misfortune that will separate her from my father." "Now I have to be the strong and sensible one," "I scoff at omens and signs to sheer her up, poor thing!" "Telmo, I have never believed in them so much." "Don't say that..." "God will make everything well, they both deserve it." "Your father, Lady Maria, is a true Portuguese." "Now I have seen him, with that soul of the old Portuguese, take the torches in his hand and set fire to his own house;" "burning and destroying so much of his own in one hour, a tremendous lesson for these tyrants of ours..." "A man!" "My life is his should he want it." "I am sorry, so very sorry, that I did not know him;" "that I did not always love him for what he is worth." "Telmo, it is a glory to be the daughter of such a father." " May God defend him!" " Amen." "Are the tyrant governors still strongly against my father?" "Your mother's omens..." "will turn out to be false." "The archbishop, the Count of Sabugal and the others have been brought to reason by your uncle." "Miguel de Moura is still renitent;" "everything will be quiet for these coming days." "It would already have been so if Dom Manuel had wished to say that the fire had broken out by accident." "But it is right like this:" "it would be to forgive the generous crime with the villainy of a lie." "My noble father!" "He can't come here except at night, and for brief moments." "And God knows how dangerous it is!" "Everyone knows he comes but they turn a blind eye to it." "Now it is just a matter of maintaining appearances for a few more days." "My mother's sadness, that terror in which she lives, and that she disguises with such effort in the presence of my father is a presage of a great misfortune..." "Whose portrait is this, Telmo?" "That is... it is someone in the family of the nobles of the house of Vimioso." "You are not telling the truth, Telmo." "I have never lied, Lady Maria de Noronha." "You are not telling the whole truth, Mr. Telmo Pais." "I told you what I know, and what is true:" "it is a gentleman from the family of my other master," " God keep his soul." " Does this gentleman have a name?" " He surely does, but I..." " Shut up." "I don't know what these mysteries are all about." "On the night we came to this house, my mother and I came into this room." "There was a torch burning, casting all its light upon this portrait..." "My mother, who was holding me by the hand, suddenly set eyes upon it and let out a cry." "Oh, my God!" "She was so taken by shock that she almost fell upon me." "She snatches the torch and grabs me so hard... in such a hurry, running through these rooms, it seemed like something evil was coming after us." "She remained in that state." "And occasionally she says:" ""The other one, the other one..."" "She can't get that portrait and that of my father that got burnt out of her head." "My dear and beloved King Sebastian." "What majesty!" "Sincere, loyal, true." "He took the task of ruling seriously and swore to aggrandize and glorify his kingdom!" "To think that he would die at the hands of the Moors, in the middle of a desert, and that it would only take an hour to erase all of the reflected boldness in those slit eyes, in the tightness of those lips!" "It can't be, it can't be true." "God would not allow such a thing." "Would that God heard you, angel from Heaven!" "Your friend with whom you traveled through India, in that land of prodigies and bizarre things..." ""In one hand always his sword and in the other his pen..."" "My Luiz, poor man!" "He got his just reward!" "He was a younger lad than I, much younger, and when I saw him the last time, on the porch of St. Domingo's convent, in Lisbon, so raggedly dressed, so cowed..." "An active and gallant..." "old man, old and feeble" "I said to myself:" ""Foul land will consume you soon, body of the greatest soul that Portugal has seen!"" "And I embraced him... for the last time." "He seemed to hear what was in my thoughts." ""Goodbye, Telmo!" "May St. Telmo be with me at the end of this voyage, as I can now sight friendly shores"" "and he pointed to a gravesite." "The friars were praying the service of the dead in the church..." "A month later someone came here and told me:" ""Well, Luiz de Camoes has gone off to St. Anne in a sheet."" "No one else spoke of him." "Don't they read the book that gives a memory to the forgotten?" "They accepted the book like the tribute from a slave." "These rich people, these grandees, who oppress and despise everything except their vanities, took the book like something that a servant had made to honor them." "Once the work was finished they let him die unprotected, without caring about it all..." "Who knows whether they even rejoiced?" "He might ask them for alms now they wouldn't have to take the trouble to refuse." "He is in Heaven." "Heaven was made for the good and for the unfortunate, for those who here on earth have divined it!" "He read in the mysteries of God;" "his words are those of a prophet." "What he says there about our King Sebastian!" "How could he then die?" "He did not die." "But the other one... who is this other one, Telmo?" "How sad he looks, what melancholy..." "Such a thick, black beard..." "and his hand resting on his sword, as if he has no other support, nor any other love in this world..." "He did, oh, he did!" "That was Dom John of Portugal, an honorable nobleman and a valiant horseman." " So my heart was right!" " What did your heart tell you, child?" "Oh, father, my dear father!" "My heart doesn't tell me anything any more." "In the daytime!" "Isn't it dangerous anymore?" "I didn't have the pacience to wait all day." "I was well hidden on the way." "There is no danger now, my lord." "This morning I went to the convent, and Friar Jorge told me that everything has been concluded." "Excellent." " And how is your mother, child?" " She has changed since yesterday..." " Let us go and see her." " No." "She is still asleep." "Asleep?" "Good." "Your hands are so hot!" "And your forehead..." "it is burning!" "It is always burning!" "For God's sake, Maria!" "I don't want you to think..." " So what should I do?" " Laugh, play..." "Don't tell her any more stories, Telmo." "Poets and troubadours are all weak in the head..." "So why do you do what they do?" "You know everything!" "Maria, my Maria!" "Telmo, call my brother;" "tell him I have arrived." "Father, is the portrait a good likeness?" "It is rare to see such a perfect likness:" "his stance, his affections, everything." "The painter faithfully copied everything he saw." "Only he couldn't see, nor would this fit on the canvas, the noble qualities of his soul, the grandeur and courage of his heart and the power of his will, which no one saw him change." "Your mother still trembles when she hears his name;" "such respect... almost a holy terror that she had for him." "He fell in that battle!" "Do you regret it, Maria?" "Yes." "If he had lived you would not exist now;" "I would not have you here in my arms." "Oh, father!" "My lady niece." "Brother!" "The governors have decided to let the matter drop;" "Miguel Moura has now given in." "The archbishop went to Lisbon yesterday and will be back this afternoon." "Four of our religious leaders and myself will go to meet him and accompany him, and you have to come with us to thank him." "He had no part in the wrong they did to you." "Only if he comes alone, without the others..." "Alone." "The others are on the estates north of the Tagus." "In fact I need to go to Lisbon:" "to the Sacrament, your new convent for nuns near to St. Vincent's;" "I have to speak to the Abbess." "Take me with you, father." "I want to see aunt Joana de Castro:" "it is the greatest pleasure I may have in this life." " That countenance..." " What about your mother?" "My mother will let me go." "She is better now... and when she sees you she will be perfectly healthy." " And the foul air in Lisbon?" " There is no sign of plague." "But... prudence after all..." "I never catch anything." "Please, father, let me go..." "We shall see what your mother says and how she is." "My dear husband, I'm totally well now." "My sickness was a fear of losing you." "My dearest Madalena!" "Telmo has told me everything, and it cured me." "Maria, God thought of us;" "he heard your prayers, child, because mine..." "Praised be the Lord for everything." "And let there be joy!" "It wouldn't thank the Lord if anyone were sad in this house tonight." "You won't leave me again;" "you will stay by my side?" "These first few days you must put up with me, keep me company." "I need this so much, dearest." "I will do whatever you wish, Madalena." "I am fine..." "But I have..." "You have an imagination that tortures you." "We shall have to punish it, to give an example to a certain young lady who is listening to us." " Today is Friday..." " Friday!" "It is Friday!" "For me it has been the best-dawned day of the week." "It is the day of the passion of Christ, Madalena." "In one... in two weeks, I won't leave the house." "Are you happy?" "My spouse, my husband!" "What about you, Maria?" "I'm not happy, father." "Do you want to know why she has this long face?" " Today I need to go to Lisbon." " To Lisbon..." "Today?" "I can't get out of it." "I am indebted who knows whether for my life itself?" "Miguel de Moura and those degenerate relatives of mine were capable of anything!" "I am greatly indebted to the archbishop." "But today!" "Today is the worst day..." "When will you be back?" "Don't leave me alone here even one more night..." "Tonight..." "I'll be back by nightfall." "And I will never leave your side again." "Am I going, father?" "Can I go, mother, please?" "Where are you going, child?" "What are you talking about?" "With father, to the Sacrament." "You know, my dear mother, that for a long time" "I have been wanting to go to that convent, to meet aunt Joana." "Sister Joana." "Haven't you been promising me, for over a year... dear mother?" "Oh, Maria, Maria..." "You're also abandoning me today!" "Don't worry about me:" "my father is going, uncle is going, and I am taking my lady-in-waiting, Doroteia..." "And my faithful squire, Telmo, will also be going." "And what about your mother, child?" "Will you leave her alone and dying of sadness and fear?" "Your mother is right." "I don't want to see anyone sad in this house today." "Come here my suffering child, and be gentle to your uncle friar." "I will stay and keep your mother company." "Go and see that holy nun..." "Your heart can be no better, but I want you to keep a cool head: do you hear?" "Cool!" "Only when it is empty!" "May I go and get ready, mother?" " If your father so wishes..." " Yes, you may." "Go." "That blood is on fire." "If it is not allowed to burn freely it will burn and consume itself." "Telmo can go with her;" "I don't want him here." "Why?" "Maria is not herself without him." "Maria is his second life..." " and he gives me superstitious fears..." " Let him go." "I've never seen you like this." "I'm so afraid, this horror of being alone in the world." "Madalena!" "Let us not talk more." "Go." "Goodbye!" "Oh, my dear wife, it is as if I were embarking on a galleon to India..." "I'll be back before nightfall." "And, Jesus!" "Look at the Countess of Vimioso, that Joana de Castro, who our Maria so wishes to meet..." "If she broke out into these cries when she said her last goodbye to her husband..." "God gave her great strength and virtue." "But I do not envy her in this;" "I am not able to achieve such perfection." " "Leave everything and follow me."" " Both alive... without offense to each other, esteeming one another... and being separated to go to the grave!" "Seeing each other in their death shrouds and... alive, healthy... after so many years of love... being condemned to die far apart from each other, alone, alone!" "And who knows whether at that frightful hour...sorry!" "No." "What a horrible thing that would be!" "They have been delivered unto God..." "And what is that to do with us?" "Our situation is so different..." "He can bless us all." "Jorge, don't leave her." "I do my best to be joyful, I would like to see them happy... but I don't know what I can say," "the state in which I see my sister-in-law, her daughter..." "I even don't know my brother!" "This evil is spreading to me." "May God be with us!" "Do you hear, Miranda?" "Go and wait until the brig comes back, when they disembark come and tell me immediately." "There is no wind and it is a beautiful day." "But the return... who knows?" "The weather changes so quickly..." "There is no danger today." "Today...today!" "Today is the day in my life that I have most feared..." "It is a fatal day for me:" "it is the anniversary..." "of when I married for the first time, it is the anniversary of the loss of King Sebastian, it is the anniversary of when I saw Manuel de Sousa for the first time." "Do you include that among the unhappy moments in your life?" "This love, sanctified and blessed in Heaven, because Manuel de Sousa is my husband, began with a crime." "I loved him from the first time I saw him... when I saw him on that day like today!" "Dom John de Portugal was still alive." "Sin was in my heart;" "my mouth did not say it..." "I don't know what my eyes did, but within my soul I already had a different image... that of a lover..." "I only kept for my husband..." "the crude fidelity that a highborn woman owes rather to herself than to her spouse." "In the fatal battle of Alcacer, among so many fallen, God allowed... who knows whether to tempt me..." "Dom John to fall also." "My lady, my lady!" "Have they arrived already?" "It can't be true." "They were almost beaching just now." "Didn't I tell you to come before you saw them arrive?" "I come to bring you a message..." "a strange message upon my faith." "A poor old pilgrim, one of those wanderers that are always passing through here, coming from Spain." "A captive... a ransomed prisoner?" "No, madam, he does not wear the cross." "Give him whatever he needs." "He says he has come from the Holy Land..." "And why won't he come here?" "Is he old?" "Very old, and he has such a beard!" "He says he has come from Palestine and that he brings you a message..." " For me?" " He insists on seeing you." "Friar Jorge, go and see the poor old man." "It's no use, my lady:" "you must hear his message." "Some relic from the Holy Places in return for a large gift of alms." "That is what it will be, as usual." "Bring him here to me." "Be careful with these pilgrims!" "The shell on their hats and the staff in their hands are often no more than tricks to attract the charity of the faithful." "And in these tempestuous times..." "Come in, brother, come in." "Lady Dona Madalena de Vilhena." "Is this the noblewoman to whom you wish to speak?" "The same." "Are you Portuguese?" "Like the best of them, I hope to God." "Where have you come from?" "From the Holy Sepulcher of Jesus Christ." "And you have visited the Holy Places?" "I didn't visit them." "I lived there for twenty years." "You have led a holy life, my good pilgrim." "I wish I had!" "I suffered from hunger, and I do not bear this easily;" "I was treated badly, and I did not always accept this treatment with my thoughts on" "He who had suffered there so much for me..." "I wished to pray and meditate upon the mysteries of the Holy Passion... and mundane passions and the memories of those who called themselves my own in flesh stilled my heart and mind, not letting me give them to God, not even in that land, which is all His." "Oh!" "I did not deserve to be where I have been." "I was unable to die there." "God wished to bring you back to the land of your fathers, and when it is his will you will die at peace in the arms of your children." " I have no children, priest." " In the company of your family..." "My family..." "I have no family anymore." "There are always relatives, friends..." "The closest one, the ones I would like to find... counted on my death, and have become happy because of it;" "they would swear that they do not know me." "Are there such bad..." "such evil people?" "God will forgive them for it, if he can!" "Do not make rash judgments, good pilgrim." "I do not." "I know more than I would like about my relatives." "I have one friend, and I can count on him." "Then you are not so unfortunate." "You may count on me, kind old man, and on my husband..." "Have I asked you for anything, madam?" "Forgive me if I have offended you." "There is no true offence except those one makes against God." "Ask forgiveness from Him, and he will not refuse it to you." "No, my brother." "He will not." "He will have pity on me." "That he will?" "..." "You said you had a message for this lady:" "give it to her, as you will need to take your rest." "Am I abusing of the patience with which you have been listening to me?" "Perhaps I have forgotten the message that I brought..." "I am so old and so changed from what I was!" "It does not matter, I will hear your message whenever you like... later, tomorrow..." "It must be today." "For three days I have not slept nor rested, nor set down my head, not stilled my feet day and night, in order to arrive here today, to give you my message... and then to die," "because I swore... a year ago to the day... when I was set free," "I took an oath on the holy stone of the Sepulcher of Christ..." "You were a captive in Jerusalem?" "Did I not say I that I lived there for twenty years?" "I took an oath that before a year was passed I would be in your presence and I would tell you from the person who sent me..." "Who sent you?" "An honorable man... to whom I owe my freedom..." "to no one else." "I swore I would carry out his wishes, and I came here." "What is his name?" "He never told anyone in captivity his name, or the name of his family." "I carry his words written on my heart with the tears of blood I saw him shed," "and which many times fell into these hands." "No one consoled him except myself...and God!" " See if I would ever forget this." " Stop, man!" "He also suffered a great deal." "Here are his words:" ""Go to Dona Madalena de Vilhena and tell her that a man who loved her greatly..." "is alive here...through his own fault... and that he cannot leave here without sending her news of him, of when twenty years ago he was brought here in captivity."" "God have mercy upon me!" "That man, that man..." "Jesus!" "That man was..." "Where did they bring him from?" "Africa?" "Indeed." " A captive?" " Yes." "A Portuguese man?" "Taken captive in the battle..." "Of Alcacer Quibir." "My God, my God!" "Why does the ground not open up beneath my feet?" "Why do these walls not fall and entomb me on the spot?" "Dona Madalena!" "The mercy of God is infinite." "I doubt," "I do not believe..." "Oh, divine inspiration..." "You know this man well, do you not?" "As well as I know myself." "If you saw him... even wearing different clothes... younger, in a painting, would you recognize him?" "As if I were looking at myself in a mirror." "Look at these portraits." "That is he." "Pilgrim, pilgrim, who are you?" "No one." "My daughter, my daughter!" "Cellar in the Palace Of Dom John Of Portugal" "Early Morning, August 5 th 1599" "My daughter, my daughter!" "My poor daughter... an orphan with neither father nor mother... nor family, nor name, you lost everything today..." "It is the terrible punishment for my mistake..." "I know it wasn't a crime." "And God knows this, Jorge, yet he has punished me in this way, my brother!" "What did I do to deserve to become the unhappiest man on earth?" "Manuel de Sousa Coutinho, the son of Lopo de Sousa Coutinho, the son of our father, Jorge!" "The unhappiest man on earth..." "Have you forgotten that he is alive?" "Indeed it is true." "No, no it isn't really:" "he has suffered more and he has suffered longer." "It was I." "I prepared his chalice of human bitterness," "I gave it to him to drink, in his hands... the innocent hands..." "of that unfortunate man that I dragged down in my fall whose face I covered..." "his pure face that had not blushed with another color than that of virtue and coyness..." "I covered it with an infamy that not even death will remove, because it will be perpetually and forever cast on his tomb, covering his memory with shadows... with stains that cannot be washed out!" "I was the author of my own disgrace and of their dishonor..." "I know this, I feel it;" "am I not therefore unhappier than anyone else?" ""Dishonor";" "think about the word and about yourself." "Consider whether you can trade wretchedness with that man whom God did not wish to aid through death before he knew this greater agony." " He does not have..." " A daughter like me, the poor thing..." "A beautiful, pure, adored daughter on whose head" "Oh!" "Why not mine?" "all this dishonor will fall, all the injustice of the world, everything on the pure, white brow of an angel, who possesses no other blame than that of the origin which I gave her." "Do not blind yourself with the pain;" "do not make yourself more miserable than you are." "God will take all this bitterness into account." "That which you suffer will be discounted in her;" "the blame will be forgiven." "Forgiveness!" "Yes, in Heaven, I trust in that..." "But what about the world?" "Forget the world and its vanities!" "I have forgotten them all." "But this heart is made of flesh." "God, God will be the father of your daughter." "Maria... the daughter of my love, the daughter of my sin, if God wishes it to be a sin, does not live, cannot withstand, and will not survive this affront." "She's not so bad;" "I went to see her today..." "Tell me about it;" "I don't have..." "I haven't had the courage to go to see her yet." "She was breathing better in her sleep." "Doroteia and Telmo the poor old man!" "were with her, either side of her..." " They told me that she had stopped..." " Vomiting blood?" "It was the blood of her heart!" "She has no other." "What other blood could there be in that fragile body?" "Yesterday, when I took her from her mother's arms, did she not spew it all out here on my chest?" "Do I not bear here...the blood..." "the blood of my victim?" "The blood of my soul, the blood of my beloved daughter!" "I want to wish for you to take her now and I don't have the courage to do so." "I should accept your mercy in calling that angel to join your own, before this vile world spits the shame of her birth in her face." "I should do, I should do..." "and I cannot," "I don't want to, I don't know how to," "I don't have the courage, I don't have the heart." "I ask for life, my God!" "I ask for life, life, life...for my daughter!" "May I die of shame, if it is necessary, cover me with the scorn of the world;" "write an epitaph on my headstone that shouts out of dishonor and infamy upon me!" " Oh, my God, my God!" " God knows what is good for us." "He will do what he, in his mercy, knows to be best." "You are making me see the truth..." "right now..." "Is that what you mean?" "Speak: is she dying?" "Is she dying?" "I will have no daughter either!" "For your own sake, my brother, I have told you the truth." "Maria seemed better;" "she was sleeping..." " Make God wish that she never wakes!" " God have mercy!" "I died today..." "I will put on my shroud soon." "My daughter was not of this world..." "she was not, Jorge;" "she was an angel who came from Heaven to accompany me on my age on Earth..." "The archangel of disgrace has separated us, the minister of the wrath of the Lord." "She was neither of this world nor for it..." "Go, Jorge, and come and tell me;" "I still cannot do so... but I will go," "I will go to see her and kiss her before going down to the grave." "When you are calmer..." "we will both go." " What time is it?" " Four, half past four." "Five o'clock, by the light of the dawn, as the sun is now upon the windows of the church." "And what about the other one..." "the other shamed woman, my brother?" "Trust in the Lord is capable of great things:" "accept this." "The Lord will do the rest." "I have faith in this scapular for you and for her." "It was a dignified solution, a divine inspiration that illuminated you both." "There still may be happy days for those who have been able to consecrate their misfortunes to God." "Is everything ready?" "In these clothes of the living" "I cannot stand the light of the day that is dawning." "Friar John of Portugal, the prior of Benfica, and also vicar of the Sacrament, arrived during the night:" "he will clothe you in the habit, you and Dona... my sister." "According to your wishes, one of you will go to Benfica and the other to the Sacrament." "You are a good brother, Jorge." "God will pay you back." "And what about him?" "Where is he...what will he do?" "The pilgrim is in my cell." "He will not see anyone, nor will he be seen by anyone who should not see him." "The secret of his real name will remain between you and I besides the archbishop, to avoid formalities and delays." "There is one other person" "I promised him he would speak to today, and before anything else." "Can this be true?" "Does this man have the cruelty to shatter the pieces of that already broken heart?" "He was always like that: cruel, and as merciless as his sword." " Does he wish to see Dona Madalena?" " No, man." "His old squire, Telmo Pais." "How could I say no to him?" "I am injust." "But I am suffering so much... my wife!" "With what mouth do I still utter these words!" "What does Dona Madalena know?" "She knows what the pilgrim told her in the fatal portrait room..." "She knows that Dom John is alive, but she does not know where." "She thinks he is in Palestine and that is where she should think he is." "Then she does not know the whole truth of our disgrace." "Good." "Perhaps she may doubt, find consolation in some hope, in her uncertainty." "Last night she began to feel some false light from that vain hope in her soul." "Let God let it be so, if it is for her good." "Why should he not let it be?" "Maria, poor Maria!" "I trust in the Lord that she does not know..." "No one has told her, nor will they." "She knows what she saw:" "her mother almost in the throes of death." "She may only guess at the motive." " I am afraid that she might do so..." " So am I..." " God will help her." " My poor beloved daughter!" "She is awake." "How is she?" "Much better, she seems to be completely well." "She is very weak and her voice is slow, but her eyes are serene, lively as before and without that sparkling she had yesterday." " She asked after both of you." " And about her mother?" "No, she has never spoken of her again." "Oh, my daughter, my daughter!" "We were going to see her." "Do you promise me?" "I promise." "Listen, Telmo, do you remember what I told you this morning?" "Of course I remember." "When we go out, pull that cord leading to the bell in the sacristy:" "a lay brother will come;" "tell him your name and wait." "Then close this door from the inside and only open it when you hear the sound of my voice." "Do not worry." "The child that I brought up in these arms..." "I am going to have news of him after all these years when everyone thought he was lost;" "and I, I who always hoped, always sighed for his return..." "Now I tremble... because my love for this other child, this last child, is greater, and has won..." "It has won..." "It has erased the other love..." "Forgive me Lord is it is a sin." "But what sin can there be in that angel?" "My God, take this old man who is no longer of any use, take him for whom you are!" "Be content with this poor sacrifice of my life, Lord, do not take from my arms the innocent little one" "I have raised for you, Lord, for you..." "She has suffered a great deal, so many pains have crossed through that soul;" "delay that of her death for some time!" "May God be deaf to your plea!" "That voice!" "Why should God not hear me?" "Were you not asking for your wretched master, for the child you raised?" "I no longer know how to ask for the other." "And if I asked for him, or for anyone else, why should God not hear me, if I am asking for the life of an innocent?" "Who told you he was innocent?" "That voice!" "That voice!" "Pilgrim, who are you?" "No one, Telmo;" "no one, if even you do not know me!" "My master, sire... is it you?" "Dom John of Portugal, is it you, sire?" "No longer your child?" "Oh, my child!" "Oh yes, my child;" "this voice, this face..." "Not this beard, not this hair..." "Whiter than my own, sire!" "Twenty years of captivity and wretchedness, of longing." "For my hair, one night after the battle of Alcacer was enough;" "the sun of Palestine and the waters of Jordan bleached my beard." "You have been so far away!" "I wish I had died so far away!" "God did not wish it to be." "His will be done." " Is it a burden to you?" " Oh, sire!" " Is it a burden to you?" " Is your life a burden to me?" "My God, it seems as if I lied..." "Why not, if it is already a burden to me, such a great burden?" "Listen, my friend..." " You are my friend?" " Am I not?" " I want to hear it from you..." " What do you want me to say, sire?" "Is it true that they looked for me everywhere, everywhere... that she sent out messengers and money?" "As true as God is in Heaven, as true as she is the most honorable and virtuous lady in Portugal." "Enough." "Go and tell her that the pilgrim was an impostor, that he has disappeared, that all of this was a vile and cruel trick by the enemy... the enemies of the man she loves..." "Tell her to be at peace and be happy." "Goodbye, Telmo!" "Should I lie, sire?" "Should I deny you like a filthy villain?" "You will do so, because I order it." "Oh, sire, sire, do not tempt your servant's faithfulness!" "Dom John, my lord, my master, my child, you do not know..." "What?" "There is an angel here... another child of mine, sire, whom I also raised..." "Whom you now love more than you love me, is that not true?" "Do not ask me that." "You as well!" "They have taken everything from me." "They have a child?" "They have spent a worse night than I did!" "May God take this into account and forgive them, as I already did." "Telmo, go and do what I told you." "My God, my God!" " Embrace me, Telmo." " Until when, sire?" "Until the Day of Judgment." "Master..." "You will hear of me when the time is right." "Dom John of Portugal died on the day his wife said he died." "Oh, Telmo, Telmo, how I loved her the wife that I can no longer love without dishonor and shame!" "Dom John of Portugal will not dishonor his widow." "Now, go; spoken by you it will have twice the force of truth:" "tell her you spoke to the pilgrim, and you forced him to admit he was a false impostor... say what you wish, but save her from shame and save my name from the affront." "The memory of it must remain spotless." "Telmo, I deliver more than my life into your hands." "Will you fail me now?" "No, no sire;" "the solution is noble and worthy of you; will it still work?" "Why not?" "Perhaps..." "Husband, husband." "Open the door please!" "I know you are here!" "Open the door!" "By the Lord!" "Madalena is calling me..." "Calling you?" "Can't you hear someone calling "husband"?" "Husband of my soul," "I beg of you on our love," "on the memories of our former happiness, do not deny me this last favor!" "What charm, what seduction!" " How can I resist her?" " My husband, my love, my Manuel!" "Ah!" "I am so blind that I took her to mean me!" "By Heaven and Hell!" "Open up this door..." "No." "Telmo, you can open it." "Telmo..." "What about him, where did he go?" "Who, my lady?" "Telmo was waiting here for me, whith orders not to open the door to anyone." "I heard two voices talking here." "Two voices?" "Where is he, Telmo?" "Where is my husband..." "Manuel de Sousa?" "That man is here, madam;" "what do you want of him?" "Oh, that air, the way that you speak!" "How do you expect me to speak to you, madam?" "Has not everything been said between us?" "Such blind faith, such implicit belief in the mysterious words of a pilgrim, a vagabond..." "A man that no one knows?" "I have something to say to you..." "I swear to you in the presence of God:" "our union, our love, is impossible." "It is impossible now..." "and it always should have been!" " You as well, Jorge!" " I was talking to Telmo, my sister." "Go, Telmo, you are more needed there." "Don't leave her for one moment." "Jorge, my brother, do you not grant any importance to my doubt?" "I wish I were so happy that I could." "Madalena... madam!" "These things are now unworthy of us." "Until yesterday, our excuse, to God and to men, was in good faith." "Now nothing remains but these shrouds and the grave of a cloister." "Let us fix our eyes on that cross!" "For the last time, Madalena... for the final time in this world, my darling..." "Goodbye." "Just one, just one word, Manuel de Sousa!" "Oh God, my Lord!" "Not even one moment more, my God?" "Christ of my Redeemer, Oh, precious cross, refuge of the unfortunate, shelter me, as everyone else in this world has abandoned me." "Take it, Lord; take everything..." "My daughter also?" "Oh, my daughter, my daughter!" "I give you her also, my God." "What more do you want from me, Lord?" "It is the voice of the Lord calling you." "The holy ceremony is about to begin." " Has he gone?" " Yes, my sister." "Manuel de Sousa Coutinho, Brother Luis de Sousa, you have wished to strip yourself of the former man, also abandoning to the world the name you had in it!" "Sister Madalena!" "Both of you, who were nobles of this world and are here lying prostrate in the dust of the earth, in the humble habits of poor novices," "have given up everything, until leaving your very selves... children of Jesus Christ, and now of our Father St. Domingo, receive with this blessed scapular..." "My father, my father, my mother," "get up!" " Maria!" "My daughter!" " Daughter, daughter!" "Oh, my daughter." "What are you doing?" "What ceremonies are these?" "What God is that on the altar who wishes to steal the father and mother from the daughter?" "And you, you fatal specters?" "This is my mother, this is my father..." "What do I care about the other man?" "Whether he died or not, whether he is with the dead or the living, whether he remains in the grave or resuscitates right now to kill me?" "Kill me, kill me if you wish, but leave me this father, this mother, who are mine." "To come into the bosom of a family and say:" ""You are not husband and wife..." "and this daughter of your love, this daughter raised on the lap of so many caresses, so much tenderness, this daughter is..." ""Mother, mother, I never told you, but I knew it;" "that terrible angel who appeared to me every night to disturb my sleep had told me... the angel who descended with a flaming sword in his hand, and who thrust it between you and I, and who plucked me from your arms" "when I was sleeping in them... who made me cry when my father came to kiss me in your lap." "Mother, mother, you will not die without me..." "Father, give me your shroud..." "Give it to me, I wish to hide here before he comes." "Before that man from the other world comes and tells me to my face and yours:" ""That child is the child of crime and sin!"" "I am not." "Say it, father, I am not... tell all these people, tell them I am not..." "My poor mother!" "Poor thing!" "You do not have the courage..." "Have you never lied?" "Lie now to save your daughter's honor, so that they will not take her father's name from her." "Lord have mercy!" "Don't you want to?" "Neither do you?" "You do not want to." "I will die like this... he is coming now..." "It is him, it is him!" "Now it is too late..." "Mother, father, cover up my face." "My sister, let us commit our souls to this angel that God has taken unto Himself." "In this world God afflicts those who love." "The crown of glory is only given in Heaven." "Translation by David Prescot Subtitling by CRISTBET, Lda."