The promise of manumission
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Leoncio havia reconhecido a promessa que seo pae fizéra a Miguel, de alforriar Isaura mediante a soma enorme de dez contos de réis.
Leôncio had acknowledged the promise his father had made to Miguel, to free Isaura for the enormous sum of ten contos de réis.
The first strand of the knot: a real, acknowledged promise. His father had agreed to 'alforriar Isaura' — to manumit her — for 'dez contos de réis,' ten contos, a vast sum (a conto was a million réis). Isaura's freedom had a price, and her father Miguel had raised it; the cruelty is that even with the money in hand, freedom depends on the will of a man who means never to give it.
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