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Truth can be a problem in a novel. In real life, we accept facts. They arise from chance or logic. In a novel, we want better inventions. We may even wish for an artistic lie. A truthful novel can seem cold. It may not carry us away from selfish life. If it is ugly, why show the truth? The human heart is bound to the earth and to guilt. The narrator lost his reason by studying truth. He will paint it as ugly and unpleasant. Does misfortune strengthen or weaken love? He presents facts and leaves the answer to the reader. A painter shows the eyes, but does not explain sight.
After nineteen months in prison, Simão longed for sunlight. He wanted air without bars. He wanted the sky, not the ceiling of his cell. He now wanted to live freely. He no longer lived for the hope of love. But he had not stopped loving Teresa. Six months facing the gallows had weakened him. The gallows had gone; the irons remained. The air was deadly and the walls were damp. The floor recalled the convicts' footsteps. Drops fell from the ceiling like death. The account also mentions eighteen months. The difference remains unexplained. The young heart weakened in the cell. The lack of nature suffocated him. Past happiness burned instead of offering comfort.
Freed from the rope of justice, he felt relief. For one hour, he had hope. He wanted to share it with Teresa. Afterwards, hope fled towards Asia. Simão was filled with bitterness. He loved Teresa, but no longer expected happiness. India meant humiliation and poverty. Simão had dreamt of making a great name for himself. He would use his talent for love and glory. Suffering had also destroyed those ambitions. The narrator speaks directly to the young man. Prison had killed the best part of his soul. Simão questioned himself about the past. If his heart answered, reason accused him. Teresa's complaints came from the convent, where she too was in agony. Simão neither knew how nor was able to console her. He sought compassionate words for her. For himself, he found only despair.
Ten years in prison seemed worse than the gallows. The narrator asks whether love would make him accept imprisonment. Perhaps he would accept so that he might still hear Teresa. Teresa had asked him to remain in prison for ten years. She hoped to free him one day. Her father might die during that time. Afterwards, she would be Simão's wife. She would ask the king to pardon him. If he left, she believed that she would lose him for ever. He would die or return having forgotten her. But Teresa deceived herself with that hope. Anxiety, pallor and weakness returned. When she coughed, she lost blood again. Not even prison would save Teresa. Death drew nearer every hour.
Simão wrote that she should expect nothing. The struggle against misfortune was useless. He could no longer fight. He said that their meeting had been a terrible error. They had nothing in this world. Only in the grave would they learn the secret and perhaps meet again. He confirmed that he would leave. He hated his country, his family and the gallows. In Portuguese voices, he heard the executioner's threats. In Portugal, he no longer wanted freedom with wealth or romantic hope. He asked Teresa to forget him. He wanted to die, but not in that prison. At the end, he wanted to see the light of the sky. He refused the ten years in prison. Teresa did not understand ten years without freedom. He spoke of his twenty months of torment. He heard only the woman who brought him bread. He also heard the court officer who announced the royal clemency. The clemency replaced the gallows with ten years of agony.
He asked Teresa to save herself. She should escape the influence of that deeply unhappy man. If her father called, she should return. If peace returned, she should live. Otherwise, he wrote, happiness lay in death. The letter showed Simão's despair. It was not a calm decision. Teresa replied in a few words. She said that she would die and asked him to forgive her fate. She had lost him and failed to free him. But she asked him to live, if he could. She did not ask him to die. She wanted him to live to mourn her. Her spirit would comfort him. She said that she was calm and could see the dawn of peace. She bade him farewell until they met in heaven.
Many days of terrible silence followed. Simão did not answer Mariana's questions. He seemed lost in his own destruction. Mariana wept at his side. When he saw those tears, Simão lost his calm. He fell into distress and convulsions. In the end, he was left without strength.
Another six months passed. Teresa was still alive. She told her distressed companions that she knew the day of her death. Simão had seen two springs through the bars. The third brought flowers and green leaves. It was March 1807. On 10 March, he received an order to depart. He would leave on the first ship from the Douro bound for India. Ships collected convicts in Porto and Lisbon. He was not boarding yet; he had only received the order.
Nothing prevented Mariana from accompanying Simão. She presented herself to the criminal magistrate as Simão's servant. In that capacity, she could legally accompany him. Simão paid for Mariana's passage. The magistrate joked that she was well worth the fare.
He watched his luggage being packed into cases. He remained terribly calm, as if he knew nothing. Several times, he tried to write his final letter to Teresa. He could not even leave traces of tears on the paper. He cried that everything was darkness. He tore at his hair. He begged God for tears or death. Mariana watched those moments of madness in horror. She also saw periods of stillness and silence. Suddenly, he would cry out Teresa's name. He called her the unhappy woman whom he had killed. Simão spoke out of guilt and despair; he had not killed her with his own hands. He knew that he would never see her again. No one would bring him news of her death. When he died, no one would carry the news to Teresa.