I Being Informed That These Two Men Were To Die, Wrote To The
Viceroy For His Permission To Exhort Them, Before They Entered Into
Eternity, To Unite Themselves To The Church.
My request being
granted, I applied myself to the men, and found one of them so
obstinate that he would not even afford me a hearing, and died in
his error.
The other I found more flexible, and wrought upon him so
far that he came to my tent to be instructed. After my care of his
eternal welfare had met with such success, I could not forbear
attempting something for his temporal, and by my endeavours matters
were so accommodated that the relations were willing to grant his
life on condition he paid a certain number of cows, or the value.
Their first demand was of a thousand; he offered them five; they at
last were satisfied with twelve, provided they were paid upon the
spot. The Abyssins are extremely charitable, and the women, on such
occasions, will give even their necklaces and pendants, so that,
with what I gave myself, I collected in the camp enough to pay the
fine, and all parties were content.
Chapter VIII
The viceroy is offended by his wife. He complains to the Emperor,
but without redress. He meditates a revolt, raises an army, and
makes an attempt to seize upon the author.
We continued our march, and the viceroy having been advertised that
some troops had appeared in a hostile manner on the frontiers, went
against them. I parted from him, and arrived at Fremona, where the
Portuguese expected me with great impatience. I reposited the bones
of Don Christopher de Gama in a decent place, and sent them the May
following to the viceroy of the Indies, together with his arms,
which had been presented me by a gentleman of Abyssinia, and a
picture of the Virgin Mary, which that gallant Portuguese always
carried about him.
The viceroy, during all the time he was engaged in this expedition,
heard very provoking accounts of the bad conduct of his wife, and
complained of it to the Emperor, entreating him either to punish his
daughter himself, or to permit him to deliver her over to justice,
that, if she was falsely accused, she might have an opportunity of
putting her own honour and her husband's out of dispute. The
Emperor took little notice of his son-in-law's remonstrances; and,
the truth is, the viceroy was somewhat more nice in that matter than
the people of rank in this country generally are. There are laws,
it is true, against adultery, but they seem to have been only for
the meaner people, and the women of quality, especially the ouzoros,
or ladies of the blood royal, are so much above them, that their
husbands have not even the liberty of complaining; and certainly to
support injuries of this kind without complaining requires a degree
of patience which few men can boast of. The viceroy's virtue was
not proof against this temptation.
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