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João da Cruz was away from the house for two hours. On his return, Simão's curiosity had become distress. Simão asked Mariana whether João might have been arrested. She had replied that her heart did not tell her so and never deceived her. He then asked what her heart said of him. Mariana promised to tell the truth, but hesitated. Simão asked her to speak, trusting the good angel that spoke within her soul. ‘My heart says that your troubles are only beginning,’ Mariana confessed. Simão listened in silence, troubled by a dark suspicion. He unfairly suspected that Mariana wanted to draw him away from Teresa and win his love.
At that moment João entered, looking cheerful. He said that Simão's mother had sent for him. Simão asked how she had known that he was in that house. She knew of the visit but believed Simão was already in Coimbra. João had not asked his source: respectable people were not questioned. His mother knew of the hiding place and had scolded him a little. João said he had calmed her: Simão had fallen ill after a fall from his horse. She had asked whether her son had any money and brought a parcel. João handed over the parcel, saying that he did not know the amount. She had not written because the chief magistrate was beside the writing desk. She had advised Simão to write only once he reached Coimbra. If Domingos discovered the hiding place, there would be great disorder at home. She had said nothing of Baltasar's servants; the city was already silent. About Teresa, she had said only that she had been taken to the convent. João then went out to blanket the mare, which was streaming with sweat. Simão counted ten full gold coins and three quarters of another, and marvelled at the gift.
In the adjoining room, Mariana embraced her father and praised the lie. João reminded her that both the lie and the plan were hers. Yet he boasted that Simão had swallowed the story like sweets. He joked that Mariana had lost her calves but would one day receive oxen in exchange. ‘I did not do this for gain, Father,’ Mariana interrupted, offended. João agreed, but reminded her that whoever sows will reap. Relieved, Mariana reflected that Simão knew nothing of the hopes her father attributed to her. Only God knew that she sought no reward.
Simão offered João money for his food. Without money, he would accept the farrier's favours. He also knew that João sought no profit. Even after paying, he would remain bound by a debt of gratitude he could never forget. João withdrew his hand: they would settle accounts at the end. If he needed money, he would come and ask for it. For now, neither hens nor bread were lacking. Simão insisted that he use the money as he wished. Feigning annoyance, João said that he ruled his own house. He told him to put the money away and await the end of the matter.
Over the next five days, Simão regularly received letters from Teresa. Some brought resignation; others, the violence of longing. In one, Teresa said that Tadeu must have known the hiding place. While Simão stayed there, Tadeu would certainly not release her from the convent. She asked him to leave for Coimbra, giving Tadeu time to forget the recent events. Otherwise, she would remain trapped, unable to escape from that hell. If she could give her heart to God, she would seek somewhere less corrupt. She could pray and live virtuously anywhere except there.
In another, however, she begged: ‘Do not abandon me, Simão; do not go to Coimbra.’ She feared that her father would move her to a stricter convent. One nun had said she would be transferred; another had mentioned Porto. Above all, she dreaded Tadeu forcing her to take vows. Fear did not overcome her: no violence could force her to take vows. She could not take vows without spending a year as a novice and being questioned three times. Each time she was questioned, she would answer no. In the convent grounds, she had discovered a carriage gate leading to the road. The gate sometimes opened for carts of firewood, but would not open again until early winter. If she could not escape sooner, Teresa promised to do so then.
Meanwhile, Tadeu's arrangements quickly bore fruit. The prioress of Monchique, his relative and a very virtuous nun, agreed to receive Teresa. She mistakenly believed Teresa was entering the convent out of love for God. She prepared rooms for her and congratulated her niece on such a pious decision. Teresa did not receive that letter because Tadeu intercepted it. Her aunt warned her that a convent could intensify passions born of a passing sorrow. After taking every precaution, Tadeu sent word that Teresa's aunt wished to have her company. The departure for Monchique would take place at dawn the following day.
When she received the unexpected news, Teresa had already sent that day's letter to Simão. In her distress, she decided to pretend to be ill, but her emotions had already given her a genuine fever. Tadeu did not wish to delay the journey, but the convent doctor opposed the cruelty of her father and the prioress. That night, Teresa wished to write to Simão. However, the prioress's servant did not leave the sick woman's bedside. The surveillance had begun with a sarcastic remark by the convent secretary during a bout of indigestion caused by the medicinal wine. The secretary had said that Teresa spent her nights in prayer and spoke to an angel through a beggar woman. Some nuns had seen the beggar waiting for Teresa's alms and thought she was merely a poor woman whom the young lady helped out of devotion. After understanding the irony, they ordered the poor woman to leave the gatehouse. On learning this, Teresa ran to a window and called to the messenger, who was leaving in alarm. She threw a note down to her in the courtyard: ‘Our correspondence has become impossible.’ ‘They are going to take me to another convent; wait in Coimbra for news from me.’ The prioress immediately learnt of the note and sent the gardener after the beggar woman. The man followed her beyond the convent gates, beat her and took the note from her. He then took the paper to Tadeu de Albuquerque. Despite her injuries, the messenger did not turn back: she reached the farrier's house and told Simão everything.
Simão leapt out of bed and called João da Cruz. In that crisis, he needed a friendly voice and a hand capable of gripping the handle of a dagger. João heard the story and advised him to wait and see. Simão rejected that cold prudence and declared that he would leave for Viseu at once. Mariana had heard the conversation and thought her father's advice sensible. Faced with her guest's impatience, she asked permission to speak although no one had invited her to do so. Mariana could go to the city and look for Brito at the convent. Brito was an acquaintance of hers who served a nun and could deliver a letter to Teresa. Simão, almost embracing her in his joy, asked whether that was possible. João decided they should do what they could and told his daughter to get dressed.
While João prepared the mare, Simão sat down to write. His thoughts were so confused that he could not form a sound plan. After a long hesitation, he told Teresa to escape by daylight when the gate was open. If necessary, she was to force the portress to open the door. Teresa was to name the hour on the following day when he would wait for her with horses. As a last resort, Simão promised to attack the convent with armed men or set it on fire to open the gates. These were frenzied intentions, not acts already carried out. The student's poor head burned like living fire. After sealing the letter, he paced the room, pulled at his hair and struck the walls blindly. He kept reaching mechanically for his pistols, rereading the letter and almost tearing it up. At one moment he thought it would arrive too late; at the next he feared it would never reach Teresa's hands. Mariana entered amid this turmoil, but Simão was too disturbed to notice her tears.
The narrator asks what suffering that pure woman's heart was enduring. If Mariana acted out of gratitude to the man who had saved her father, her virtue was rare. If she loved him and cleared the path by which he would leave her for ever, the sacrifice was greater still. Between gratitude and love, the narrator does not choose. ‘I am ready,’ Mariana said. Simão gave her the letter and asked her to do everything she could to bring back a reply. With the letter, he offered her a parcel of money. Mariana asked whether that money was also for Teresa. Simão replied that it was for Mariana to buy herself a ring. She took the letter and quickly turned her back on him, concealing an expression of hurt or disdain. It remained unclear whether she had accepted the money for the ring. Simão did not insist when he saw her hurry down to the yard.
In the yard, João was fastening the mare's bridle. He warned Mariana not to strike the mare too hard with the stick. The young woman sprang onto the pack saddle covered by a scarlet quilt. João noticed that his daughter was as yellow as a citron and asked what was wrong. Mariana replied that nothing was wrong and asked him for the stick. The mare set off at a gallop, carrying Mariana towards Viseu. In the middle of the road, the farrier proudly watched his daughter and the mare. He declared that Mariana was worth more than all the noblewomen of Viseu. He would not give up his mare even for the prettiest of them. And if the Sultan of Morocco came to ask for his daughter, he would not give her away either. ‘Now that is a real woman; the rest is mere talk,’ João concluded, within Simão's hearing.