CHAPTER XVII.
The warm bath round the corner, is a refreshment
after a day's railroad ride in such
heat; and there, in the front room, the man
in his shirt sleeves is serving out liquor, as
before, and the usual company of Creoles is
gathered about the billiard tables. After a
dinner in the handsome, airy restaurant of
Le Grand's, I drive into the city in the
evening, to the close streets of the Entramuros,
and pay a visit to the lady whom I
failed to see on my arrival. I am so fortunate
as to meet her, and beside the pleasure
to be found in her society, I am glad to
be able to give her personal information from
her attached and sympathizing friends, at the
North.
While I am there, a tinkling sound of bells
is heard in the streets, and lights flash by. It
is a procession, going to carry the viaticum,
the last sacrament, to a dying person.
From this house, I drove towards the waterside,
past the Plaza de Armas, the old Plaza
de San Francisco, with its monastery turned
into an almazen (a storehouse of merchandise,)
through the Calle de los Officios, to
the boarding-house of Madame Almy, to call
upon Dr. and Mrs. Howe. Mr. Parker left
Havana, as he intended, last Tuesday, for
Santa Cruz. He found Havana rather too hot
for his comfort, and Santa Cruz, the most
healthful and temperate of the islands, had
always been his destination. He had visited
a few places in the city, and among others,
the College of Belen, where he had been courteously
received by the Jesuits. I found that
they knew his reputation as a scholar and
writer, and a leading champion of modern
Theism in America. Dr. Howe had called at
Le Grand's, yesterday, to invite me to go
with him to attend a trial, at the Audiencia,
which attracted a good deal of interest among
the Creoles. The story, as told by the friends
of Señor Maestri, the defendant, is, that in
the performance of a judicial duty, he discharged
a person against whom the government
was proceeding illegally, and that this
led to a correspondence between him and the
authorities, which resulted in his being deposed
and brought to trial, before the Audiencia, on
a charge of disrespect to the Captain-General.
I have no means of learning the correctness
of this statement, at present—
"I say the tale as 't was said to me."
The cause has, at all events, excited a deep
interest among the Creoles, who see in it
another proof of the unlimited character of
the centralized power that governs them. I
regret that I missed a scene of so much
interest and instruction. Dr. Howe told
me that Maestri's counsel, Señor Azcárate, a
young lawyer, defended his friend courageously;
but the evidence being all in writing,
without the exciting conflicts and vicissitudes
of oral testimony, and the written arguments
being delivered sitting, there was not much
in the proceedings to stimulate the Creole
excitability. No decision was given, the
8*
Court taking time to deliberate. It seems to
have been a Montalembert trial, on a small
theatre.
To-night there is again a mascara at the
next door, but my room is now more remote,
and I am able to sleep through it. Once I
awoke. It was nearly five o'clock. The music
was still going on, but in softer and more subdued
tones. The drums and trumpets were
hushed, and all had fallen, as if by the magic
touch of the approaching dawn, into a trance
of sound, a rondo of constantly returning delicious
melody, as nearly irresistible to the
charmed sense as sound can be conceived to
be,—just bordering on the fusing state between
sense and spirit. It is a contradanza
of Cuba. The great bells beat five, over the
city; and instantly the music ceases, and is
heard no more. The watchmen cry the hour,
and the bells of the hospitals and convents
sound their matins, though it is yet dark.
