Page:Peterson's Magazine 1842, Volume I.pdf/163

134

THE EQUAL DOOM.

TRANSLATED FROM THE SPANISH.

It was under the reign of him, who has been commonly as well as vulgarly, called 66 Peter the cruel," that two men ofa mean aspect, departed one evening from Toledo. They were both on horseback, both enveloped in long mantles, and directed their course toward the Tagus. They proceeded by the banks of the river for some time, and then, as the sun was setting, sheltered themselves in a sort of ambuscade, near to the solitary habitation of a shepherd, who had but recently arrived in that part of the country, from New Castile. As the night closed in, the bells of an approaching mule were heard in the path of the valley where these men were concealed. They rushed out from behind the hedge, where they had established the ambuscade, stopped the mule, laid hold of the young girl that was on its back, and placing her behind one of themselves, in despite of her resistance, they galloped back with her to Toledo.

The valley for a few moments was filled with the cries, and sent back the echo of " father-dear father father Bartholomew." These were the cries of the maiden as she struggled in the arms of the villains who held her. Soon her extreme fear, her despair, and her agony, combined with the menaces of the ruffians, deprived her of the power of utterance, and in a short time, nought was heard in the path of the valley but the trot of the mule and the tinkling of its bells.

Although this deed of violence was perpetrated at a considerable distance from any habitation, still the piercing shrieks of the victim had reached the ears of Bartholomew. He recognized the voice of his daughter Inez ; he flew to her assistance, and he was soon, by his activity and address, on the track of those who had carried her away.

It was two hours afterward, when, breathless and covered with dust, paleness on his forehead, and the wildness of a maniac in his eyes, the father dismounted at the door of a house in the Plaza Mayor at Toledo. He forced his way through all obstacles, and he found himself in the presence of the weeping Inez, and of a stranger, whose ironical smile seemed at once to insult the grief of the one, and the outrage done to the other.

" Who are you ?" said the stranger, planting himself between the father and daughter.

Her father," answered Bartholomew, repressing as well as he could, the feeling of anger that he experienced ; "her father, and you are a scoundrel."

Do you know to whom you are speaking ?" added the unknown, in a menacing tone.

To a base villain, I am quite sure," replied Bartho- | lomew, repelling him with his robust arm . "But I must first look to my daughter. You and I can settle accounts afterward." And saying this, he laid hold of his daughter's arm for the purpose of leading her to the door of the apartment in which this scene passed. " Miserable fool !" instantly exclaimed the stranger, furious at beholding that he was about being deprived of his victim. They were the last words that Bartholemew heard ; for the miscreant who had uttered them struck him with a poignard, and stretched him dead at his feet. The news of this horrid murder, rendered still more odious by the circumstance that had preceded it, caused a great commotion in the city, and it was in vain that the nobility, to whose class the murderer belonged, endeavored to shelter him from the pursuits of justice. The guilty man was arrested in his flight, and incarcerated in one of the prisons of Toledo. In the fourteenth century, it was well known what were the advantages to an accused of dilatory proceedings in criminal prosecutions. Thus it was that it was not until six months after the perpetration of his crime, that Don Micida, the murderer of Bartholomew was brought before the tribunal, which, if possible, he would have avoided. He had prepared for his defence several perjured witnesses. One swore that he had seen him some miles from Toledo on the night the murder took place. A second deposed that he was so ill the day before it, that he had prepared himself for death ; and a third that he had been in his company all the day and night on which this atrocious crime had been perpetrated. No one believed these witnesses ; but then the culprit had powerful friends, and his interest blunted the edge of the sword of justice. The sentence pronounced upon him was equivalent to an acquittal. It was that he should lose his privileges as a noble for one year, and pay a trifling fine. On the payment of the latter, he was instantly restored to liberty. But at the very moment in which the assassin of Bartholomew escaped the chastisement that was due to his crime, his irrevocable condemnation had been pronounced by a tribunal on which he had not at all calculated ; and he did not long enjoy impunity from his crime. The very next day, in the broad light of the sun, and in the most populous quarter of the city, as he was about to enter the palace of one of his brother nobles, he fell mortally wounded by two stabs of a poignard— " One," said his murderer, “ is given you for the sake of Inez, and the other for the death of Bartholomew." The man who had slain Don Midici did not make the slightest effort to escape. He cast from him the blood-stained weapon. He folded his arms on his breast, and without attempting the slightest resistance, he permitted himself to be arrested . His detention in prison was not of very long duration. The criminal proceedings against him went forward with the greatest