here to prove that? Who can prove that, without the
denunciation which had brought about your arrest, you would have given
yourself up?"

"This memoir, in the first place."

"That memoir was in your possession, and there is nothing to show that
had you not been arrested, you would have put it to the use you say you
intended."

"At the least, sir, there was one thing that was not in my possession,
and of the authenticity of which there can be no doubt."

"What?"

"The letter I wrote to your predecessor, Judge Ribeiro, the letter which
gave him notice of my early arrival."

"Ah! you wrote?"

"Yes. And the letter which ought to have arrived at its destination
should have been handed over to you."

"Really!" answered Judge Jarriquez, in a slightly incredulous tone. "You
wrote to Judge Ribeiro."

"Before he was a judge in this province," answered Joam Dacosta, "he
was an advocate at Villa Rica. He it was who defended me in the trial at
Tijuco. He never doubted of the justice of my cause. He did all he could
to save me. Twenty years later, when he had become chief justice at
Manaos, I let him know who I was, where I was, and what I wished to
attempt. His opinion about me had not changed, and it was at his
advice I left the fazenda, and came in person to proceed with my
rehabilitation. But death had unfortunately struck him, and maybe I
shall be lost, sir, if in Judge Jarriquez I do not find another Judge
Ribeiro."

The magistrate, appealed to so directly, was about to start up in
defiance of all the traditions of the judicial bench, but he managed to
restrain himself, and was contented with muttering:

"Very strong, indeed; very strong!"

Judge Jarriquez was evidently hard of heart, and proof against all
surprise.

At this moment a guard entered the room, and handed a sealed packet to
the magistrate.

He broke the seal and drew a letter from the envelope. He opened it and
read it, not without a certain contraction of his eyebrows, and then
said:

"I have no reason for hiding from you, Joam Dacosta, that this is the
letter you have been speaking about, addressed by you to Judge Ribeiro
and sent on to me. I have, therefore, no reason to doubt what you have
said on the subject."

"Not only on that subject," answered Dacosta, "but on the subject of all
the circumstances of my life which I have brought to your knowledge, and
which are none of them open to question."

"Eh! Joam Dacosta," quickly replied Jud