taunted him as a one-eyed diabo (45). He joined in the revels of other young men penniless as himself, although in so doing he must have felt that he was merely acting a part to be put off at will, and he seems to have earned among them the name of the Swashbuckler, Trincafortes (46). Very ready with word and sword, he boasted that he had often seen the soles of other men's feet, but none had ever seen his. His letter from India shows clearly the kind of life he led, as does the incident which occurred a year or two after his return from Africa. On June 16, 1552, the day of Corpus Christi, an obscure Court official, Gonçalo Borges, was riding through the Rocio when at the entrance of the Rua S. Antão, near the Convent of S. Domingos, two masked men began to bandy words with him. From words they passed to acts, and Camões, recognizing in them two of his friends, drew his sword on their side and wounded Borges in the neck. We are not told if he, too, was mounted, or if friends had come to Borges' assistance. As we have it the affair looks like a deliberate if not a prearranged attack (47). Dr. Storck considers that Camões had written in Africa his splendid oitavas addressed to D. Antonio de Noronha, who induced Prince João to favour the poet. The Prince's intervention on his behalf was, however, in vain, and in June 1552 Camões learnt that he had small hope of lucrative employment. The children of that day were precocious and the son of the Conde de Linhares may have been fitted to grasp the high philosophy of this poem before he was fifteen; it is also possible that the poem was written later in India, before its author had heard of D. Antonio's death, or that it was addressed to a different and older Noronha (Couto frequently calls him D. Antonio as well as D. Antão) who was in India with Camões. We know now that with his cousin muito privado Camões had no need for the mediation of D. Antonio. Simão Vaz may, however, have run into trouble himself about this time, and this would be one reason for Camões' recklessness on June 16. His offence was extremely serious, aggravated as it was by the day's solemnity and by the presence of the Court at Lisbon. The penalty might be death, for in those unenlightened days murder was not considered a venial offence. If in the former danger which had caused him to leave Lisbon many of his friends turned their backs on him, he now felt the ground give way beneath his feet (48). For over eight months he lay in the tronco (prison) of Lisbon. Fortunately Borges' wound was not fatal, and before the end of February 1553 he had completely recovered and was ready to forgive his aggressor. In these circumstances, and after the intervention, perhaps, of some influential friend, Camões received a free pardon and was released on the payment of 4,000 réis pera piedade to the King's Almoner, the Bishop of S. Thomé. 'He is young and poor,' says the decree of pardon, and is going to serve me this year in India.' That was a very polite way of putting it. Possibly Camões had received a strong hint that the pardon would arrive more quickly if he signified his intention of enlisting and embarking, and little more than a fortnight elapsed between the date of the pardon and his departure. Probably he had agreed almost with alacrity. To any one in the Lisbon prison the prospect of India and freedom would seem paradise enough. III THE matter assumed a different aspect when, on board the S. Bento, on Palm Sunday, March 26, 1553, or a couple of days earlier, he bade his native land goodnight: Gradually now our country's hills from sight| 'I went as one leaving this world for the next,' he wrote, and in the twilight of his hopes he addressed to his country the words of Scipio Africanus: Ingrata patria, non possidebis ossa mea' (49). India was no longer the El Dorado of his dreams but the confused Babel' described by Couto (50). An account of the voyage in a long poem (the magnificent elegy O poeta Simonides), a prose letter to a friend, and |