any
hesitation in doing so!"

"Perhaps so," replied Yaquita; "but then Joam Dacosta had not been
arrested. The position is not now the same. However innocent he may be,
my husband is in the hands of justice; his past life has been publicly
proclaimed. Minha is a convict's daughter."

"Minha Dacosta or Minha Garral, what matters it to me?" exclaimed
Manoel, who could keep silent no longer.

"Manoel!" murmured Minha.

And she would certainly have fallen had not Lina's arm supported her.

"Mother, if you do not wish to kill her," said Manoel, "call me your
son!"

"My son! my child!"

It was all Yaquita could say, and the tears, which she restrained with
difficulty, filled her eyes.

And then they all re-entered the house. But during the long night not an
hour's sleep fell to the lot of the unfortunate family who were being so
cruelly tried.

CHAPTER III. RETROSPECTIVE

JOAM DACOSTA had relied entirely on Judge Albeiro, and his death was
most unfortunate.

Before he was judge at Manaos, and chief magistrate in the province,
Ribeiro had known the young clerk at the time he was being prosecuted
for the murder in the diamond arrayal. He was then an advocate at Villa
Rica, and he it was who defended the prisoner at the trial. He took
the cause to heart and made it his own, and from an examination of the
papers and detailed information, and not from the simple fact of his
position in the matter, he came to the conclusion that his client was
wrongfully accused, and that he had taken not the slightest part in the
murder of the escort or the theft of the diamonds--in a word, that Joam
Dacosta was innocent.

But, notwithstanding this conviction, notwithstanding his talent and
zeal, Ribeiro was unable to persuade the jury to take the same view of
the matter. How could he remove so strong a presumption? If it was not
Joam Dacosta, who had every facility for informing the scoundrels of the
convoy's departure, who was it? The official who accompanied the escort
had perished with the greater part of the soldiers, and suspicion could
not point against him. Everything agreed in distinguishing Dacosta as
the true and only author of the crime.

Ribeiro defended him with great warmth and with all his powers, but he
could not succeed in saving him. The verdict of the jury was affirmative
on all the questions. Joam Dacosta, convicted of aggravated and
premeditated murder, did not even obtain the benefit of extenuating