Maximina Part 54

The division of these parties was not based upon the fact that the one, that of the Casona, represented the traditional and conservative element, while that of the Casina stood for the progressive and liberal, the first having often been seen taking the side of "liberal administrations," and the other sustaining the cause of the "moderate"

candidate. The quarrel was kindled solely by the eagerness for controlling local politics, and thus of being in last a.n.a.lysis the masters of the village. The rest was not of the least consequence.

Nevertheless, it cannot be denied that Don Martin's party had marked tendencies towards absolutism. In Don Servando's, on the other hand, there was no noticeable predilection for liberty.

It was this Don Servando, who, as Miguel alighted from the diligence and received him, took him home, w.i.l.l.y nilly. He was a fat man of medium height, and was approaching his seventieth birthday; his face, with its deep red complexion, was adorned with short gray whiskers; he wore a very long, black frock coat, and black _hongo_ besides.

"Have I the honor of addressing Senor Corcuera," he asked him very politely, with a strong Galician accent.

"No, sir; my name is Miguel Rivera, at your service."

"That is very good," the Galician replied, and addressing himself to a servant, he said: "_Muchacho_, look up the gentleman's luggage, and take charge of it. I will tell you where it has to be carried."

"I suppose that you are Senor Bustelo," Miguel hastened to say.

"We will have a chance to talk as we go around yonder corner. You will do me the favor to follow me."

And Don Servando set forth with firm and deliberate step toward the corner indicated. Miguel followed him without understanding what it all meant.

When they had reached there, Don Servando said to him, without looking at him, and as though he were speaking with the above-mentioned corner:--

"I received word from the Senor Governor that you were to arrive this afternoon, and I take it for granted that you will do me the honor of accepting modest hospitality at my house."

"Provided that you are Senor Bustelo."

"The house that you see yonder, where there is a belvedere, is mine, my dear sir. Have the goodness to go on ahead, and I will immediately follow."

Miguel did what he commanded, without understanding the meaning of all this mystery. Afterwards he had just as little an idea, but it no longer surprised him.

Don Servando's predominant characteristic, which was manifested in all his acts, and never failed him, was caution. He never asked directly more than he already knew; what he was anxious to find out he always accomplished by means of a long series of circ.u.mlocations, and hiding his design. He never gave a straightforward and prompt answer to questions, no matter how insignificant or meaningless they were.

After being a few hours in his company Miguel became convinced that it was idle to try to find out anything about his personality. It was, above all, on account of this quality that he was greatly admired by all his friends and feared by his opponents. He talked little, and never looked a man in the face.

After they had eaten supper, and the guest's luggage had been brought in with infinite precautions, the two shut themselves into Don Servando's office, where, in less than an hour, he imbibed six bottles of beer.

"It seems to me that you are fond of beer, Senor Bustelo."

"Psh! so, so.... I prefer wine," he replied, with the gravity and the Galician accent peculiar to him.

On the following days Miguel had the opportunity of observing that he scarcely touched wine.

One after another, and as though some desperately dangerous conspiracy were in progress, the official candidate received the calls of Don Servando's partisans, who promised great success in the coming election.

Nevertheless Miguel was quick to see that the forces were very evenly balanced; indeed, so well that while in what we might name the urban region of Serin, in the brain of the community, the Casina party was predominant, it was in a large minority in the rural districts. Official influence was as little at the complete disposition of this party; while the town authorities[51] of Serin were theirs; those of two other precincts, Agueria and Villabona, gave allegiance to Don Martin, and it was in these, after all, that the key of the election finally lay.

General Rios had been put up for this district without opposition, and from that moment the partisans of the Casona had rivalled Don Servando's in zeal and efficacy in serving him. This was the usual tactics among them. When they found it impossible to struggle they humiliated their proud heads, and did all that they could to win the deputy's friendship, or at least his good will, to beg a few of the crumbs of favor, so that they might not be wholly at the mercy of their implacable enemies. They well knew by experience that if this happened, they were liable to all kinds of annoyances, and sometimes to the guard-house, since each party excelled in letting the star of the morning witness their _dissipations_.

Owing to this state of affairs, though the general inclined toward the Casina party, he had not consented to the others being maltreated, and he had even gone so far as to leave in their hands certain offices which were in the gift of the state, and this stirred up the wrath of Don Servando's friends, and made them so indignant that they secretly murmured against the count, and even proposed to "pay him off" when the suitable occasion came.

Thus it was that as the horizon was now darkened by a second deputy, who they hoped would be absolutely in their interests, and tear up by the roots Don Martin's influence in the _concejo_,[52] at least for a long season.

It was for this reason that Don Servando had the keen foresight to lodge him in his house, in order that neither Don Martin nor any of Don Martin's friends could call upon him.

On the next morning after his arrival Miguel wrote Maximina, and sallied forth to drop the letter in the post-office, thinking that it was a good time to explore the town. In the first street, which ran into the Muelle, he discerned a letter-box, and made for it; but, as he came near to it, he found that it had a board nailed over the aperture. He walked along a little farther and soon saw another; but here this same state of things was repeated, and likewise in three or four others which he happened upon in various parts of the village.

"Will you please tell me where I can mail this letter?... All the boxes that I have found are nailed up," he said to a domestic who was pa.s.sing.

"It's because Don Matias is postmaster now ... you'll find it in a provision store near the Muelle, do you see?... Don't miss your way ...

follow this street down, and you'll see it."

The postmastership, as he discovered afterwards, was one of the perquisites which the two parties of Serin quarrelled over furiously, it having pa.s.sed alternately from the hands of one of Don Servando's friends to those of one of Don Martin's, and _vice versa_. As each time it came into the hands of a different person,--for it was necessary to satisfy all,--it happened that many of the houses in Serin had been pierced for letter-boxes. The postmaster received the salary of three thousand five hundred reals[53] a year.

As he was walking along one of the streets he met Don Servando, who greeted him solemnly, and started to pa.s.s on.

"What is the good word, Senor Bustelo; are you going home?"

"No, sir, no; I am taking a little walk; then I have some business to attend to.... Good by, Senor de Rivera."

Miguel went home, but before he reached the house he saw Don Servando go in. Why had he lied? G.o.d only knows.

When he learned that Miguel had posted a letter, the chief of the Casina party turned livid.

"What!... Senor Rivera ... a letter?"

"Yes, sir; a letter," replied Miguel, not understanding the reason for his surprise.

"But don't you know, my dear sir, that Don Matias is ... belongs to the _others_?"

"What of that?"

"Here we never receive or drop letters at the village post-office; we send them to Malloriz, and there we have also a person who gets those directed to us, and forwards them to us afterward."

"Man alive! what distrust!"

"We can't be too careful, my dear sir; we can't be too careful."

a.s.sured by the thought that his letter was for his wife, he immediately invited Don Servando to take a bottle of beer. For the leader of the Casina beer-drinking was an august function of life. He had surprised the community by saying, perhaps with truth, that he drank five duros'

worth a day of this beverage. Such prodigality, truly tremendous in that region, helped him not a little in maintaining his prestige. Don Servando was the only rich man who spent all his income in Serin, and this was because he was a bachelor.

XXII.

The first thing that the Casina party demanded of Miguel, as a condition of his election, was to accomplish the dismissal of the jailer, get the post-office from Don Matias, and the tobacco-shop[54] from a man named Santiago, all of whom belonged to Don Martin's party.... And in fact Miguel wrote to the governor and his Madrid friends; in five or six days came the decapitation of the tobacconist and Don Matias, and shortly after that of the _alcaide_, there being named in place of them three other individuals, who swore by Don Servando's beer. This gentleman, when he received the news, found it in him to smile and drink three schooners without breathing.

His friends perceived in that smile and the absorption of the three schooners such a great and deep mystery, that they looked at each other, filled with faith and enthusiasm for their chief.

But the Casona party were bold enough in spite of being in opposition, and they proclaimed to the four winds the candidacy of Corrales, who, having been minister several times, enjoyed much notoriety in the country, although he had no official power to back him. The fact was that he was master of the _ayuntamientos_ of Agueria and Villabona, and that the combined vote of these districts fully counterbalanced the majority which his opponents might raise against him in Serin. The election was by universal suffrage, but both parties had perfectly calculated their forces. Consequently, the first question on the carpet that night in Don Servando's office, the dismissal of the _alcaide_ having been obtained, was the suspension of the munic.i.p.al governments above mentioned, and this had to be done before the opening of the electorial period.

They were there discussing the most suitable methods of carrying out this plan, when one of the numerous spies whom Don Servando kept in the village came into the room and informed them that Don Martin had booked for the following day in the _Ferrocarrilana_.