The Fencing Master (20 page)

His hands were trembling, and he felt his stomach tighten as he broke the seal. The envelope was folio-sized and about an inch thick. He tore the wrapping and removed a folder tied with ribbons; it contained several sheets of manuscript paper. In his haste to undo the knots, the folder fell open, and the pages scattered on the floor near the walnut sideboard. Cursing his clumsiness, he bent down to pick them up. They had an official look about them; most were letters and documents bearing a letterhead. He went and sat down at his desk and placed the papers before him. At first, he couldn't read a single word; he was so keyed up that the lines seemed to dance before him. He closed his eyes and made himself count to ten. Then he took a deep breath and started reading. Don Jaime shuddered as he read some of the signatures.

M
INISTRY OF THE
I
NTERIOR

To: Don Luis Álvarez Rendruejo

Inspector General of Government Security and Police

Madrid

I am writing to ask you to keep a close watch on the people indicated below, since we have reasonable suspicions that they are conspiring against the government of Her Majesty the Queen.

Given the status of some of the presumed conspirators, I take it for granted that the task will be carried out with all possible discretion and tact and that the results of the investigation will be communicated directly to me.

Martínez Carmona, Ramón. Lawyer. Calle del Prado, 16, Madrid

Miravalls Hernández, Domiciano. Industrialist. Calle Corredera Baja, Madrid

Cazorla Longo, Bruno. Manager of the Bank of Italy. Plaza de Santa Ana, 10, Madrid

Cañabate Ruiz, Fernando. Railway engineer. Calle Leganitos, 7, Madrid

Porlier y Osborne, Carmelo. Financier. Calle Infantas, 14, Madrid

To ensure maximum security, I would be grateful if you would deal with this matter personally.

Joaquín Vallespín Andreu
Minister of the Interior
Madrid, 3 October 1866

***

To: Joaquín Vallespín Andreu

Minister of the Interior

Dear Joaquín,

I have been thinking about our conversation of yesterday evening, and your proposal seems acceptable to me. I confess that I have my reservations about doing anything to benefit this scoundrel, but the result makes it worthwhile. You get nothing for free nowadays!

The business about the mining concession in the Cartagena mountains has been settled. I spoke to Pepito Zamora and he has no objections, despite the fact that I've given him no detailed information. He must think I'm hoping to gain some personal advantage from it, but that doesn't matter. I'm too old now to worry about fresh calumnies. By the way, I have made the proper inquiries and I believe that our man is going to make a killing. Believe me, I have a nose for such things.

Keep me informed. Needless to say, the matter should not be mentioned in the Council of Ministers. Get rid of Álvarez Rendruejo as well. From now on, you and I can deal with the matter between us.

Ramón María Narváez
8 November

***

M
INISTRY OF THE
I
NTERIOR

To: Don Luis Álvarez Rendruejo

Inspector General of Government Security and Police

Madrid

Please give orders for the following people to be detained, under suspicion of conspiring against the government of Her Majesty the Queen:

Martínez Carmona, Ramón
Porlier y Osborne, Carmelo
Miravalls Hernández, Domiciano
Cañábate Ruiz, Fernando
Mazarrasa Sánchez, Manuel María

They should all be detained separately and kept incommunicado.

Joaquín Vallespín Andreu
Minister of the Interior
Madrid, 12 November

***

G
ENERAL
I
NSPECTORATE OF
P
RISONS

To: Don Joaquín Vallespín Andreu

Minister of the Interior Madrid

Dear Sir,

I am pleased to inform you that the following: Martínez Carmona, Ramón; Porlier y Osborne, Carmelo; Miravalls Hernández, Domiciano; and Cañabate Ruiz, Fernando, were today admitted into Cartagena Prison without incident, awaiting their transfer to prisons in Africa, where they will serve their sentences.

Yours faithfully,
Ernesto de Miguel Marín
Inspector General of Prisons
Madrid, 28 November 1866

***

To: Señor Don Ramón María Narváez

President of the Council of Ministers, Madrid

Dear General,

I am pleased to be able to send you the results contained in the accompanying report, which reached my hands this very night. I can give you more details if you require them.

Joaquin Vallespín Andreu
Madrid, 5 December
(Only copy)

***

To: Don Joaquín Vallespín Andreu
Minister of the Interior, Madrid

Dear Joaquín,

I have only one thing to say: excellent work. What our man has given us represents the most serious blow we can deal the schemer J. P. Under separate cover, I am sending you precise instructions on how to approach the matter. This afternoon, when I return from the Palace, we will go into more detail.

We have to be firm. There is no other way. As for the soldiers implicated, I am going to recommend that Sangonera use his toughest measures. We have to teach them a lesson.

Meanwhile, stand your ground.

Ramón María Narváez
6 December

***

M
INISTRY OF THE
I
NTERIOR

To: Don Luis Álvarez Rendruejo

Please arrange for orders to be given to detain the following people, on charges of high treason and of conspiring against the government of Her Majesty the Queen:

De la Mata Ordóñez, José. Industrialist. Ronda de Toledo, 22, Madrid

Fernández Garre, Julián. Civil servant. Calle Cervantes, 19, Madrid

Gal Rupérez, Olegario. Captain in the Engineers. Jarilla Barracks, Alcalá de Henares

Gal Rupérez, José María. Lieutenant in the Artillery. La Colegiata Barracks, Madrid

Cebrián Lucientes, Santiago. Lieutenant Colonel in the Infantry. Trinidad Barracks, Madrid

Ambrona Páez, Manuel. Commanding Officer in the Engineers. Jarilla Barracks, Alcalá de Henares

Figuero Robledo, Ginés. Shopkeeper. Calle Segovia, 16, Madrid

Esplandiú Casals, Jaime. Lieutenant in the Infantry. Vicálvaro Barracks

Romero Alcázar, Onofre. Administrator of "Los Rocíos" estate, Toledo

Villagordo López, Vicente. Commanding Officer in the Infantry. Vicálvaro Barracks

As regards the military personnel included in this report, you will act in conjunction with the corresponding military authorities, who are already in possession of the appropriate orders issued by His Excellency the Minister of War.

Joaquín Vallespín Andreu
Minister of the Interior
Madrid, 7 December 1866
(Copy)

***

G
ENERAL
I
NSPECTORATE OF
G
OVERNMENT
S
ECURITY AND
P
OLICE

To: Don Joaquín Vallespín Andreu

Minister of the Interior

Dear Sir,

I am pleased to tell you that this morning the instructions received yesterday have now been carried out by employees of this department in conjunction with the military authorities, and that all the individuals listed in the same have now been detained.

Yours faithfully,
Luis Álvarez Rendruejo
Inspector General of Government Security and Police
Madrid, 8 December 1866

***

G
ENERAL
I
NSPECTORATE OF
P
RISONS

To: Don Joaquín Vallespín Andreu

Minister of the Interior

Dear Sir,

I am writing to tell you that, as of today, the following people have been placed in Cádiz Prison awaiting deportation to the Philippines.

De la Mata Ordóñez, José
Fernández Garre, Julián
Figuero Robledo, Ginés
Romero Alcázar, Onofre

Yours faithfully,
Ernesto de Miguel Marín
Inspector General of Prisons
Madrid, 19 December 1866

***

M
INISTRY OF
W
AR

To: Don Joaquín Vallespín Andreu

Minister of the Interior

Madrid

Dear Joaquín,

This letter is official confirmation that this afternoon Lieutenant Colonel Cebrián Lucientes and Commanding Officers Ambrona Páez and Villagordo López went into exile in the Canaries on board the steamship
Rodrigo Suárez.
Captain Olegario Gal Rupérez and his brother José María Gal Rupérez are still in the military prison in Cádiz awaiting the next embarkation of deportees for Fernando Po.

Pedro Sangonera Ortiz
Minister
Madrid, 23 December

***

M
INISTRY OF
W
AR

To: Don Joaquín Vallespín Andreu

Minister of the Interior

Madrid

Dear Joaquín,

It is once again my duty, my painful duty on this occasion, to take up my pen to inform you officially that, since no pardon was given by Her Majesty the Queen, and the period stipulated in his sentence having passed, Lieutenant Jaime Esplandiú Casals was shot at four o'clock by a firing squad in the moat of Oñate Castle. He was condemned to death for sedition, high treason, and conspiring against Her Majesty's government.

Yours faithfully,
Pedro Sangonera Ortiz
Minister
Madrid, 26 December

This was followed by a series of official notes, along with other brief letters of a confidential nature between Narváez and the Minister of the Interior, bearing later dates, and in which they discussed the various activities of Prim's agents in Spain and abroad. Don Jaime deduced from them that the government had been keeping a close eye on the clandestine movements of the conspirators. They were constantly citing names and places, recommending that this man be placed under surveillance or that man detained; they warned of the false name under which one of Prim's agents was to embark from Barcelona. Don Jaime looked back at the other letters to check the dates. The correspondence covered a period of a year and ended abruptly. He thought back and realized that the end coincided with the death in Madrid of Joaquín Vallespín, the man on whom the whole file seemed to center. Vallespín, as he well remembered, had been one of Agapito Cárceles's bêtes noires at the Café Progreso; he was a man described as entirely loyal to Narváez and to the monarchy; as an eminent member of the Moderate Party he had distinguished himself during his tenure by his determination to take a firm hand He had died of some kind of heart disease and his funeral had been carried out with due pomp; indeed Narváez himself had led the procession Narváez had followed Vallespín to the grave shortly afterward thus depriving Isabel II of her main political support.

Don Jaime scratched his head in puzzlement. All this made no sense. He wasn't particularly up-to-date on cabinet machinations, but he had the feeling that these documents, which were the likely cause of Luis de Ayala's death, contained nothing to justify his eagerness to hide them, far less his murder. Don Jaime reread a few pages with dogged concentration, hoping to discover some clue that might have escaped him on the first reading—in vain. He lingered longest over the somewhat cryptic note that he found in the second part of the file: the brief letter from Narváez to Vallespín addressing him in familiar terms. In it, Narváez referred to a proposal, doubtless put to him by the government minister, which he deemed "acceptable" and which apparently had to do with a matter concerning "a mining concession." Narváez had consulted with someone called Pepito Zamora, probably the man who was Minister of Mines at the time, José Zamora. But that seemed to be all. There was no clue, no other names. "I have my reservations about doing anything to benefit this scoundrel," Narváez had written. Which scoundrel was he referring to? Perhaps the answer lay there, in the name that appeared nowhere. Or did it?

He sighed. Perhaps for someone versed in the matter, this would have some meaning, but it did not lead him to any conclusion at all. He could not understand what it was that made those documents so important and dangerous that people would stop at nothing, not even murder, in order to gain possession of them. Besides, why had Luis de Ayala entrusted them to him? Who wanted to steal them, and why? Then again, how had the Marqués de los Alumbres, who claimed to keep very much on the sidelines in politics, managed to get hold of these papers, which were part of the private correspondence of the late minister?

There was at least a logical explanation for that. Joaquín Vallespín Andreu was the Marqués de los Alumbres's uncle. The government post that Ayala had held during his brief experience of public life had been offered to him by Andreu during one of Narváez's last governments. Did the dates coincide? Don Jaime could not quite remember, although Ayala's brief stint at the ministry might have come later. The important thing was that Ayala could have obtained the documents while he was carrying out his official duties, or perhaps on the death of his uncle. That was reasonable enough, even very likely. But what did they mean, and why such an interest in keeping them secret? Were they so very dangerous, so very compromising that a justification could be found in them for murder?

He got up from the table and walked about the room, weighed down by this grim story that completely defied his analytical abilities. It was all so devilishly absurd, especially the involuntary role that he had played in the tragedy—and was still playing, he thought with a shudder. What did Adela de Otero have to do with that web of conspiracies, official letters, and lists of names? And not one of the names was familiar to him. He did remember reading something in the newspaper about the events mentioned, or else he had heard some remarks made about them at the café, before and after every attempt Prim made to take power. He even remembered the execution of that poor lieutenant, Jaime Esplandiú. But nothing else. He was up a blind alley.

He thought of going to the police, handing over the file to them, and forgetting all about the matter. But it wasn't that simple. He remembered with a sense of great unease the interrogation he had been submitted to that morning by the chief of police as they stood over Ayala's body. He had lied to Campillo by concealing the existence of the sealed envelope. And if those documents did compromise someone, they were equally compromising for him, since he had been the innocent depository. Innocent? The word made him curl his lip. Ayala was not alive to explain the whole imbroglio, and innocence was something for the judges to decide.