don tomas garcia was a gentleman, and had a pedigree to prove it, dating back to the birth of the republic.
he was also a gambler who cheated at cards and a duelist who could, and did, easily dispatch anyone foolish enough to challenge him, for his cheating or for anything else.
so egregious did his conduct become in this regard, that colonel marquez, the proprietor of the capital city’s only respectable casino, complained to don jaime mendoza, the governor of the province, that he, colonel marquez, was being deprived of more than half his business because the gentlemen of the capital were shunning his establishment, out of fear of don tomas.
i only ask your advice, excellency, the colonel pleaded. i do not expect any action from you, either personally or in your official capacity.
well then, here is what you should do. have one of your humblest employees challenge tomas for his play, in the presence of as many forewarned gentlemen as possible. since the employee is not a gentleman, tomaso will not challenge him but simply kill him on the spot. the assembled gentlemen will then overpower tomaso and bear him off to jail. you will have provided sufficient sums to the sheriff that tomaso will not be able to buy his way out of captivity. tomaso will then be judged by a jury of his peers and delivered to the hangman. how does that sound?
how will i persuade my humble employee to take this part in the farce?
find a way. now, if you will excuse me…,
the colonel found a way, involving a promise to arrange an advantageous marriage of the employee’s comely daughter to a newly wealthy dealer in saddles and spurs.
when the time came, all went as planned. don tomas was duly sent to the gallows. the only remarks he made at his sentencing were to the effect that the jurors were cowards who dared not face him on the field of honor, where he claimed he could have taken them all on at once,
now, it should be noted that don tomas, despite his impeccable pedigree in the official records, had not been immune to jesting remarks, behind his back, as to his actual lineage. his physiognomy was thought to bear the marks of the inhabitants of the region who had lived there since before the establishment of the republic by the bearers of civilization. he was, in fact, often referred to as “the peasant” or “the native”, by the common people , and by the less prudent of his enemies.
at the time our story takes place, the region had been illuminated, or troubled, depending on one’s point of view, by a wandering preacher, calling himself brother joachim, who took to the roads and hills inveighing against the greed and corruption of the ruling classes, in the time-honored manner of such persons. he was regarded as a saint by many of the humble class.
brother joachim took up the cause of don tomas, taking at face value his names of “peasant’ and ”native” and proclaiming him a martyr. much of the native population, especially those most remote from the capital, heeded his words.
don tomas, like brother joachim himself, was remembered as a saint.
years, and centuries, passed.
brother joachim has been forgotten, but the memory of saint tomas the peasant still lives on in some distant hamlets, between the rivers and the mountains of the republic.
