Sebastian still held Don Emanuel, but he ceased to see him: his mind fell back on itself, and plunged in a deep reverie, he remained many minutes standing in the same fixed attitude, when the soft touch of Kara Aziek recalled him to recollection. Starting at the gentle pressure of that dear hand, he recovered himself with a pensive smile, and returned the parting benediction of De Castro. Don Emanuel’s composed features now for the first time assumed an appearance of great emotion; his face was whiter than death, and his words inarticulate: he looked as if suddenly overcome with a painful presentiment. In truth, Sebastian’s expression had excited in him some apprehension for the fate of his purposed embassy, and the possibility of failure pierced him to the heart: he looked at his King, and the idea that they were never to meet again, crossed him like a horrid phantom. Again he kissed his hands, and hurrying out of the apartments, departed for ever from Cachoeira. CHAP. X. The departure of Don Emanuel De Castro might have produced an alarming change in the situation of Sebastian, had the Spanish viceroy been a man of rigid principles; fortunately he was otherwise. Indifferent to matters of conscience, and wholly devoted to pleasure, he listened at first without emotion to the representations of the Monks, (who now hastened to influence him against their heretical countryman;) but when they added their belief that the Portuguese settler must have used witchcraft to humanize the Guaymures, his inattention ceased, and he questioned them further. De Cunha was not a character easily impressed by superstition; and laughing at the grave assertion of the Monks, he resolved to protect the man they persecuted. If a private individual chose to waste his fortune and his time upon the cultivation of a savage race, why should De Cunha interfere, since his government would be rendered less troublesome by their continuance in peace? why should he demolish the village of Cachoeira and drive the Guaymures back to their dens and their barbarism, solely to oblige a set of persons whom he denominated _moral Locusts_? While De Cunha continued to live in this world as if there were no other, while he worshipped only distinctions and delights, what cared he if others chose to venerate Gods, saints, or devils? This criminal apathy to the noblest sentiment of man, was here rendered an instrument of good, to a being of a far different stamp: Sebastian was permitted to pursue his own plans, and having had the discretion to send a sumptuous present to the viceroy, his gift was accepted in lieu of personal appearance, and from that hour his existence was scarcely remembered at St. Salvador. Domestic happiness still spread its mild sunshine over his retired abode: alternate occupation and rest afforded him just time to feel that he was useful, and that he was blest. If anxious thoughts intruded, he strove to moderate, though not wholly to stifle them.