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Marta was in her room, beside the dark wooden oratory with its gold decoration. Inside it stood an old ivory image of Christ in his human agony. A blessed wax candle burned on each side of the cross. Friar João entered in a surplice and stole. Feliciano carried a large candle, and Simeão carried the holy water. Marta stood trembling against the chest of drawers, with fear in her eyes. The friar sat down and summoned her with a commanding gesture. She approached hesitantly and knelt down. Friar João made his face solemn and gave his voice a frightening sound, as his manual ordered. He began with a test to discover whether a demon was really present. He shouted in Latin, in the name of Jesus Christ, and made Marta shudder. He ordered the spirits to give a sign if they were inside that woman's body. The sign could be fresh suffering or a movement of the body, within what God allowed. Marta was terrified and understood only the words “demon” and “unclean spirits”. No one had ever told her that they considered her possessed. She had neither the strength nor the words to challenge her confessor's error. The narrator says that even a better-educated woman might submit to a confessor's force. He also criticises certain forms of humility, without offering a modern explanation for Marta. Marta could no longer remain on her knees. She sat down, struggled to breathe and began to weep heavily.
Friar João made a satisfied gesture, as though he already expected victory. In a new command, he ordered the supposed demons to end the suffering. Then he ordered them to cast her to the ground if she was possessed. Marta had in fact fallen, with her face on the floor and her arms outstretched. The narrator describes an epileptic seizure and severe stiffness in her body.
“There is no doubt,” the exorcist told Marta's husband and father. He told them to take her away and said that they would continue later.
After the faint, Marta told her uncle that she could hardly remember what had happened. She said that she was afraid of Friar João and did not want to confess to him again.
Friar João claimed that those words were further proof of possession. “It is no longer she who speaks; it is the Devil who is afraid of me!” he exclaimed. The narrator calls the friar's satisfaction holy conceit. Feliciano showed some doubt, but Simeão declared that his daughter had the Devil in her. Simeão said that the late Genoveva had also had a demon in her. According to him, Genoveva had thrown herself into the river because she had never accepted those prayers.
The next day, Friar João overcame Marta's reluctance and began the second session. His face and voice became even more frightening. He gave her Brognolo's manual and ordered her to read aloud. Marta knelt before the oratory and read a command addressed to the demon. The text said that she was a creature of God, saved by the blood of Christ. In Jesus's name, it ordered the demon to obey and torment her only lightly. It might make her tremble or fall, but it was to leave her conscious.
Marta's body began to tremble visibly. She threw the book towards the friar impatiently and spoke through her sobs.
“Leave me alone, leave me alone, by the wounds of Christ!” Marta pleaded.
Friar João smiled and muttered into Feliciano's ear.
“The accursed one is using Christ's name to drive me away!” he claimed. Then he threatened Satan and said that he would destroy him.
Friar João then moved to the harsh questions that the manual called objurgations. In Latin, he asked the supposed demon whether it knew God. He asked whether it knew that it had once been an angel and had lost Heaven through pride. Finally, he demanded to know how it dared not appear before a minister of God.
There was still no answer, but the friar ordered everyone to kneel. He crossed his arms over his chest, looked at Christ and began another prayer.
In Latin, he asked the Holy Spirit to fill the faithful and kindle his love within them. Then he said, “Dominus vobiscum.”
Simeão replied with the faulty Latin he used at Mass: “É de co espirituo.”
More prayers and the Litany of Our Lady followed. Then Marta had to read a long rejection of the demon. The text asked what authority it had to possess or harm her body. Marta pushed the book away and said that she could neither read nor remain on her knees. She felt dizzy and wanted to lie down. The exorcist would not let her go to bed. He ordered her not to escape and to kneel at his feet. He sat like a judge before an enemy whom he already considered guilty. He covered his head, sprinkled Marta with holy water and began the Asperge me. He ordered two candles to be put out and forbade everyone to speak. In the silence, only the flies drawn to the single light could be heard. They settled on the wounded forehead of the image of Christ. The large room was left almost completely dark. Marta shrank in terror, with her hands near her mouth to hide her sighs.
After a few minutes, Friar João again used religious words to insult and bind the supposed demon. Marta made a distressed movement, as though she wanted to escape. The priest restrained her with the stole, following a rule in the manual. He made fresh conjurations and rose with great solemnity. Then he called on Christ in Latin and asked for help.
While the friar continued, Marta collapsed unconscious.
“Victory!” Friar João cried.
He showed Feliciano a page that explained his conclusion. According to the book, the surest sign that a demon had left was for the person to lie on the ground as if dead. Friar João cited the healing of a deaf and mute man in Saint Mark's Gospel. He wiped away his sweat joyfully, certain that he had won.
He told them to carry Marta to bed and put all the relics beneath her pillow.
Feliciano and Simeão could barely lift Marta's rigid body. She seemed fixed to the floor like a stone. Feliciano asked the friar to support her by one arm. Friar João refused because the rule forbade him to touch a woman considered possessed. The old manual even said that a woman should not be touched with the sign of the cross.
Marta spent the night restless, feverish and delirious. She gave high, bright laughs, spoke of José Alves and shook the bedclothes. When she emerged from her stupor, she sat up and stared fixedly at her uncle. Feliciano did not go to bed that night. At dawn, he sent his brother Simeão to fetch the doctor because of the high fever. He also cursed the friar and the exorcisms.
When daylight came, Feliciano went to rest for a while in Teresa's bed. He was afraid of catching his wife's fever. At nine o'clock, the governess woke him with some news. Marta had gone out alone at sunrise. A woman had found her running near the vicar of Caldelas's house. The witness said that Marta looked like a poor madwoman, but that was her own judgement. Friar João heard the news as he finished a Mass of thanksgiving for his supposed victory. At that moment an unnamed doctor arrived. When he learnt what had happened, he insulted the exorcist fiercely. He called Feliciano and Simeão a band of fools. Then he left for Caldelas with Feliciano. Friar João felt insulted by the doctor and by Feliciano's brusque manner. He quoted Jesus about shaking the dust from one's sandals outside the house of the ungodly. Then he went away. Some devout women followed him along the road, weeping very loudly. When he disappeared round the bend, some pulled out hair full of nits. Others slapped their own faces or gave piercing cries.
Joaquim Melro, the innkeeper and Feliciano's compadre, saw them pass the inn. He stepped outside and hurled a brutal insult at them.
“What a vile lot!” Melro shouted.