Caesar or Nothing | Page 8

still alive, always say that these Peyr��s devoted themselves to usury; and there is some talk of a certain sister of Juan Guill��n's, ruined by one of the Peyr��s, whom they made disappear from the town.
Whatever the motive was, the fact is that one day Peyr��, the father, and his eldest son were found, full of bullet holes, in an orange orchard.
Juan Guill��n was arrested; in court he affirmed his innocence with great tenacity; but after he had been sentenced to ten years' imprisonment, he said that there were still two Peyr��s left to kill, whom he would put off until he got out of prison.
As it turned out, Guill��n was set free after six years and returned to Villanueva. The two threatened Peyr��s did their utmost to keep away from the revengeful Guill��n; but it did not work. Juan Guill��n killed one of the Peyr��s while he was watering the flowers in the balcony of his house. The other took refuge in a remote farm-house rented to peasants in his confidence. This man, who was very crafty, always took great precautions about all the people that came there, and never forgot to close the doors and windows at night.
One morning he was found in bed with his head shot to pieces by a blunderbuss. No doubt death overtook him while he slept. It was said that Guill��n had got in down the chimney, and going close to where Peyr�� lay asleep, had fired the blunderbuss right against him. Then he had gone tranquilly out by the door, without anybody's daring to stop him.
These two last deaths did not cause Guill��n any trouble with the law. All the witnesses in the suit testified in his favour. When the trial was over, Guill��n arranged to stay and live tranquilly in Villanueva.
There was a highwayman in the town, who levied small sums on the farms for cleaning young sneak-thieves out of the country, and for escorting rich persons when they travelled; Guill��n requested him to give up his job and he did not offer the least resistance.
Juan Guill��n married a peasant-girl, bought a truck-garden, and a wine-cave, had several children, and was one of the most respectable highwaymen in the district. He was the terror of the country, particularly to evil-doers; for him there were neither scruples nor perils; might was always right; his only limitation his blunderbuss.
To live in a continual state of war seemed to him a natural condition. Half in earnest, half in jest, it is told of the truck-gardeners of Valencia that the father always says to his wife or his daughter, when he is going to have an interview with somebody:
"Bring me my pistol, sweetheart, I am going out to talk to a man."
To Guill��n it seemed indispensable that he should carry his blunderbuss when discussing an affair with anybody.
Juan's energy did not diminish with age; he kept on being as barbarous and brutal as when he was young. His barbarity did not prevent his being very fine and polite, because he was under the conviction that his life was a well-nigh exemplary life.

TENDER-HEARTED VICENTA
Of the highwayman's children, the eldest son studied for the priesthood, and the youngest daughter, Vicenta, got ruined.
"I should prefer to have her a man and in the penitentiary," Guill��n used to say. Which was not at all strange, because for the highwayman the penitentiary was like a school of determination and manhood.
Vicenta, the highwayman's youngest daughter, was a blond girl, noisy and restless, of a violent character that was proof against advice, reprimands, and beatings.
Vicenta had various beaux, all gentlemen, in spite of her father's opposition and his cane. None of these young gentlemen beaux dared to carry the girl off to Valencia, which was what she wanted, for fear of the highwayman and his blunderbuss.
So she made arrangements with an old woman, a semi-Celestina who turned up in town, and in her company ran off to Valencia.
The father roared like a wounded lion and swore by all the saints in heaven to take a terrible revenge; he went to the capital several times with the intention of dragging his daughter back home bodily; but he could not find her.
Vicenta Guill��n, who was known in Valencia,--for what reason is not evident,--as the Tender-hearted, had her ups and her downs, rich lovers and poor, and was distinguished by her boldness and her spirit of adventure. It was said of her that she had taken part, dressed as a man, in several popular disturbances.

THE MONK
While the Tender-hearted was leading a life of scandal, her brother, Francisco, was studying in the College of the Escolapians in the village, and afterwards entered the Seminary at Tortosa. He did not distinguish himself there by his intelligence or by his good conduct; but by force of time and