Caesar or Nothing | Page 9

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," Guillén
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 Guillén, 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 recommendations he succeeded in getting ordained and saying
mass at Villanueva. His father's restless blood boiled in him: he was a
rowdy, brutal and quarrelsome. As life in the village was
uncomfortable for him, he went to America, ready to change his
profession. He could not have found wide prospects among the laity,
for after a few months he took the vows, and ten or twelve years later
he returned to Spain, the Superior of his Order, and went to a
monastery in the province of Castellón.

Francisco Guillén had changed his name, and was now called Fray José
de Calasanz de Villanueva.
If Fray José de Calasanz, on his return from America, had not learned
much theology, at any rate he had learned more about life than in the
early years of his priesthood, and had turned into a cunning hypocrite.
His passions were of extraordinary violence, and despite his ability in
concealing them, he could not altogether hide his underlying barbarity.
His name figured several times, in a scandalous manner, along with the
name of a certain farmer's wife, who was a bit weak in the head.
These pieces of gossip, though they gave him a bad reputation with the
town people, did not prevent him from advancing in his career, for
pretty soon, and no one quite knew for what reason, he was found to
have acquired importance and to wield influence of decisive weight,
not only in the Order, but among the whole clerical element of the city.
At the same time that Father José de Calasanz was becoming so
successful, the Tender-hearted took to the path of virtue and got
married at Valencia to the proprietor of a little grocery shop in a lane
near the market, his name being Antonio Fort.
The Tender-hearted, once married, wrote to her brother to get him to
make her father forgive her. The monk persuaded the old bandit, and
the Tender-hearted went to Villanueva to receive the paternal pardon.
The Tender-hearted, being married, lived an apparently retired and
devout life. Her husband was a poor devil of not much weight. The
Tender-hearted gave a great impetus to the shop. After she began to run
the establishment there was always a great influx of priests and monks
recommended by her brother.
Some of them used to gather in the back-shop toward dusk for a
tertulia, and it was said that one of the members of the tertulia,--a
youthful little priest from Murcia,--had an understanding with the
landlady.
The priests' tertulia at Fort's shop was a well-spring of riches and
prosperity for the business. The little nuns of such-and-such a convent
advised the ladies they knew to buy chocolate and sweets at Fort's; the
friars of another convent gave them an order for sugar or cinnamon,
and cash poured into the drawer.
The Tender-hearted had three children: Juan, Jerónimo, and Isabel.
When the two elder were of an age to begin their education, Father José

de Calasanz made a visit in Valencia.
Father José had a powerful influence among the