Jean-Marie Blas De Robles - Where Tigers Are at Home

He lit a cigar. Stroking his sideburns, he found a new scar to tease. He was not convinced his wife would see reason after a night to sleep on it; she might just as well persist in her stubborn determination. He’d definitely have to take steps to secure himself once and for all against the danger of such moods. Ownership of those parcels of land was the basis of his enterprise, without them no speculation, no resort , the whole of the financial arrangements would fall through. The simplest solution would be to buy them back. Apart from taking out a second mortgage on all of his own property, he couldn’t see how to obtain the necessary money.

Moreira opened the little safe concealed, as a matter of form and to give it some style, behind a woodcut by Abrão Batista. He took out a pile of bank files and immersed himself in the figures. For many minutes the only sound was that of papers being turned feverishly. Then a creak of furniture and the governor leaned back in his chair with a satisfied smile. The most obvious solutions did not always appear immediately, swamped as they were by the mass of minor details. He read once more the fax containing the key to the problem. Sir, subsequent to our conversation of the … etc., we can confirm that the sum of 200,000 US dollars for the advance financing of your project had been approved .

We would remind you that this loan will be released to your account on receipt of the various works status reports … etc., etc .

The previous day the Japanese had released the first tranche of their commitment. The sum was intended to cover the expenses of setting up the project, so that they could go ahead with the construction as soon as possible, once the Brazilian government had given the green light. All he needed to do was to take enough out of it, under some pretext or other, to repay Carlotta. Since he had the power of attorney, he wouldn’t even need to ask her opinion, the title deeds would change hands without any problem. The profit on the sale of the plots of land for the American army would then allow him to make good the withdrawal. It would make a small dent in his personal gain, but that was of no consequence.

Once the principal of the transfer was established, carrying it out was merely a question of the mechanics of banking and paperwork … The governor picked up the telephone and dialed the home number of his lawyer.

“Governor?” came the sleepy voice from the other end of the line. “What time is this?”

“What does that matter?” Moreira said, looking at his watch. “Two in the morning. Time to wake up and pay attention.”

“Just a moment, I’ll go to the other phone … All right, what is it?”

“Listen carefully: you must be at Costa’s by the time the offices open. I don’t care how you do it, but don’t leave until you’ve got a work status report equivalent to 100,000 dollars. Tell him to invoice us for clearing the ground, or whatever, I don’t know. He’s the project manager, so he’s to sort it out so that it looks genuine …”

“Is there a problem?”

“Nothing serious. I’ll tell you about it. As soon as you’ve got the document, you’re to go to the Sugiyama Bank to have that sum credited to my account and go to the palace with the notary public with the title deeds. All the pieces of land have to be in my name by tomorrow morning. We’ll sort it out formally later on.”

“In your name? Really?”

“Wake up, for God’s sake! It’s a manner of speaking … Do it so you cover our tracks a bit as usual. It doesn’t really make a lot of difference, but from a political point of view I mustn’t appear in this transaction. OK?”

“I’ll see to it.”

“Right, then. Get back to sleep. See you tomorrow.”

In which the fountain of Pamphilius is unveiled & the pleasant conversation on the subject that Athanasius had with Bernini recorded

THE YEAR 1650, which began at this juncture, saw a further increase in Kircher’s fame, for he published two fundamental books one after the other: the Musurgia Universalis & the Obeliscus Pamphilius . The subtitle of the Musurgia summarized the importance and novelty of this work: The great art of consonance & dissonance, in ten books wherein are treated the entire doctrine & philosophy of sound & the theory as well as the practise of music in all its forms; the admirable powers of consonance & of dissonance in the whole universe are explained therein with numerous & strange examples that are designed for diverse & practical uses, but more particularly in philology, mathematics, physics, mechanics, medicine, politics, metaphysics & theology … Three hundred brothers from our missions, who had come to Rome to take part in the election of the new General of the Society, each returned with a copy of this book, convinced it would be of great use to them in the barbarian countries to which they were going.

As to the Obeliscus Pamphilius , besides numerous explanations of Egyptian symbolism, it gave for the first time the faithful & complete translation of a text written in hieroglyphs! Not long after the appearance of these books, letters of congratulation began to flood in from all parts of the globe.

All this hustle and bustle was crowned by an unexpected event: the Roman senator, Alfonso Donnino, who had recently died, bequeathed the whole of his collection of curios to the Society of Jesus & to Kircher in particular. This collection, one of the finest of its time, comprised statues, masks, idols, pictures, weapons, tables made of marble or other costly materials, glass & crystal vases, musical instruments, painted dishes & innumerable fragments of stone from antiquity. Some alterations to the third story of the College were thus necessary in order to increase the floor-space of the museum so that this extensive collection could be housed there.

In the spring of 1650 the Fountain of the Four Rivers was unveiled by the Pamphili family. The greatest names of Rome all gathered in the Forum Agonale together with Kircher & Bernini, the sole creators of this magnificent work. After a long speech on the virtues of his predecessor, Alexander VII, the new Supreme Pontiff, blessed the fountain with great ceremony; the sluice gates were opened & the pure water of the Acqua Felice finally flowed into the immense basin.

“This fountain is absolutely worthy of praise,” the Pope said as he approached our little group, Kircher, Bernini and me, “& I salute you as men who deserve to be as greatly honored by our age as Michelangelo & Marsilio Ficino were in theirs.”

Bernini visibly swelled with pride, my master having, out of humility, emphasized the modest nature of his own contribution.

“Is it true what they say,” the Pope went on, turning to Bernini, “that this rock with the pipe through it, this lion & this horse only required a few weeks’ work?”

“A few months, your Holiness,” Bernini corrected, piqued by the insinuation. “The rest of the work presented no major difficulty & would have taken more time than I had at my disposal.”

“I know, I know,” the Pope replied in honeyed tones, looking demonstratively at the statue of the Nile, “but no one could maintain that this fountain would have been equally majestic if you had sculpted it entirely with your own hands …”

There was no mystery about the fact that Bernini himself had only worked on the three figures mentioned by the Pope & that for the other parts of the fountain he had been happy to supervise the best pupils in his studio. It was due, moreover, less to a decision on his part than to the time limits imposed by the late Innocent X. But even if the Supreme Pontiff’s irony was merely intended to tease Bernini in his too obvious vanity, it still seemed very unfair to me. Seeing the sculptor roll his mastiff eyes & aware of his impulsive nature, Kircher stepped in: ‘Doubtless it sometimes happens that pupils surpass their teachers— Tristo è quel discepolo che non avanza il suo maestro , 1is he not? Nevertheless, that is rare & in this case it is to the one who has taught them everything that the credit is due.”