After five and a half months, the Casa Verde was empty: everyone was cured! Councillor Galvão, so cruelly afflicted by principles of fairness and moderation, had the good fortune to lose an uncle; I say good fortune because the uncle left an ambiguously worded will and Galvão obtained a favorable interpretation by corrupting the judges and deceiving the other heirs. The alienist’s sincerity was apparent on this occasion; he freely admitted that he had played no part in the cure, and that it had been all down to the healing power of nature. With Father Lopes it was an entirely different matter. Knowing that the priest knew absolutely no Hebrew or Greek, the alienist asked him to write a critical analysis of the Septuagint. The priest accepted and performed the task in short order; within two months he had written the book and was a free man. As for the apothecary’s wife, she did not stay long in the cell allocated to her and where she was always treated kindly and affectionately.

“Why doesn’t Crispim come to visit me?” she asked every day.

In reply they gave her one excuse after another; in the end they told her the truth. The worthy matron could not contain her shame and indignation. During her fits of rage, she would utter random words and phrases such as these:

“Scoundrel! Villain! Ungrateful cheat! Nothing but a peddler of spurious, rancid lotions and potions . . . Oh, the scoundrel!”

Simão Bacamarte recognized that, even if the accusation itself might not be true, her words were enough to show that the excellent lady was at last restored to a state of perfect mental disequilibrium, and he promptly discharged her.

Now, if you think that the alienist was delighted to see the last inmate leaving the Casa Verde, you will only be revealing how little you know our man. Plus ultra! was his motto: Ever Onward! It was not enough for him to have discovered the true theory of insanity; nor was he content to have restored the reign of reason in Itaguaí. Plus ultra! Rather than feeling elated, he grew troubled and pensive; something was telling him that his new theory held within it another, even newer theory.

“Let’s see,” he thought, “let’s see if I can finally reach the ultimate truth.”