My sword would fall from my hand
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— E o devo, porque um fidalgo que mata uma criatura fraca e inofensiva, comete uma ação baixa e indigna. Durante trinta anos que me acompanhas, sabes como trato os meus inimigos; pois bem, a minha espada, que tem abatido tantos homens na guerra, cair-me-ia da mão se, num momento de desvario, a erguesse contra uma mulher.
— And I must, because a nobleman who kills a weak and harmless creature commits a base and unworthy act. For the thirty years you have been with me, you know how I treat my enemies; well then, my sword — which has struck down so many men in war — would fall from my hand if, in a moment of frenzy, I raised it against a woman.
And I must judge so, says D. Antônio: a nobleman who kills a weak, harmless creature commits a base act. In thirty years the squire has seen how he treats his enemies — yet his war-sword would drop from his hand before he raised it against a woman.
The chivalric ideal in one image: the war-sword that will not touch a woman. Alencar sets his patriarch's honor directly against his son's cruelty.
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