Storia do Mogor 265.23.7

265.23.7

At this time a woman servant arrived; he had brought her with him on purpose, and she said the lady was very weak ; it was two days since she had eaten anything. He told the maid to see if the sufferer could not take some broth or medicated drink. The woman went inside before everybody with the bowl of food, and said such words from within that those outside imagined the wife to be really very ill. On the third day he made a figure of straw and enshrouded it so that it looked like a real corpse, and set up many candles which he had brought for the purpose. Then he sent a message to the vicar to have the bell tolled for his wife, Catharina da Silva, she being dead ; and in great haste dispatched an advice to his relations at Madras that his wife had died, and they must all come to attend her funeral. The vicar descended to the plain, very angry that they had not sent word to him, so that he might have confessed her and administered extreme unction. The would-be husband answered that she had already been confessed at Sao Thome.