The alienist intimated that he wasn’t entirely happy with the proposal, but that he would come up with an alternative within a few days. He asked a number of questions about the previous day’s events, the attack, the defense, the dragoons switching sides, any resistance offered by the councillors, and so on, to which the barber gave fulsome answers, laying great emphasis on how utterly discredited the council was. The barber confessed that the new government did not yet enjoy the backing of the town’s leading citizens, but then that was something where the alienist himself could make all the difference. The government, concluded the barber, would be greatly relieved if it could count on the sympathy, if not the goodwill, of the loftiest mind in Itaguaí, and, no doubt, in the entire kingdom. But none of this made a button of difference to the noble, austere features of that great man, who listened in silence, showing neither pride nor modesty, as impassive as a stone deity.

“Eleven dead and twenty-five wounded,” repeated the alienist, after accompanying the barber to the door. “Here we have two fine cases of cerebral incapacity. This barber exhibits clear symptoms of shameless duplicity. As for the idiocy of those who cheered him, what further proof is needed than those eleven dead and twenty-five wounded? Yes, two fine cases!”

“Long live noble Porfírio!” shouted the thirty-odd people waiting for the barber outside.

The alienist peered out the window and managed to catch the end of the barber’s short address to the excited crowd.

“. . . for I will be vigilant, of this you can be certain, yes, ever vigilant in fulfilling the wishes of the people. Trust in me, and everything will be resolved in the best possible manner. I only wish to remind you of the need for order. Order, my friends, is the very foundation of government!”

“Long live noble Porfírio!” shouted the thirty voices, waving their hats.

“Two fine cases!” murmured the alienist.

Chapter 10

THE RESTORATION

Within five days, the alienist had committed to the Casa Verde around fifty supporters of the new government. The people were outraged. The government, bewildered, did not know how to react. João Pina, another barber, said openly in the streets that Porfírio had “sold his soul to Simão Bacamarte,” a phrase which rallied the most ardent of the town’s citizens to Pina’s side. Seeing his old rival in the arts of the razor at the head of this new insurrection, Porfírio understood that all would be lost if he did not move decisively; he issued two decrees, one abolishing the Casa Verde and the other banishing the alienist. João Pina ably demonstrated, with eloquent turns of phrase, that Porfírio’s actions were nothing but a ruse and should not be taken seriously. Two hours later, Porfírio was ignominiously defeated, and João Pina assumed the heavy task of government. Finding in the filing cabinets drafts of the proclamation, the loyal address to the viceroy, and other inaugural documents left by the previous government, he lost no time in having them copied and dispatched; the chroniclers specifically state, and indeed it can be safely assumed, that he took care to change the names, so that where the other barber had written “corrupt council,” the new barber referred to “an impostor steeped in evil French doctrines contrary to the sacrosanct interests of His Majesty,” and so on.