'A homage in his soul'
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não podia eximir-se de render no fundo d’ alma certa homenagem á belleza e virtudes daquella escrava excepcional,
could not exempt himself from paying, in the depths of his soul, a certain homage to the beauty and virtues of that exceptional slave,
The concession lands: Leôncio 'não podia eximir-se de render… certa homenagem,' could not exempt himself from paying a kind of homage, 'no fundo d’alma,' in the depths of his soul, to Isaura's 'belleza e virtudes.' The feudal word 'homenagem' — the reverence a vassal owes his lord — inverts the hierarchy: the owner inwardly bows to the owned. Even in the villain, virtue extorts a tribute he cannot withhold. It is the moral core of the scene and of the book.
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