Then he said that he did not like the barber’s suggestion and that he would try to devise a better compromise, which he would communicate to the government within a few days. He asked a number of questions about the events of the day before: the attack by the dragoons, the defense, the change of sides by the dragoons, the Council’s resistance, and so on. The barber replied in detail, with emphasis on the discredit into which the Council had fallen. He admitted that the government did not yet have the support of the most important men in the community and added that the alienist might be very helpful in this connection. The government would be pleased, indeed, if it could count among its friends the loftiest spirit in Itaguai and, doubtless, in the entire kingdom. Nothing that the barber said, however, changed the expression on the doctor’s austere face. Bacamarte evidenced neither vanity nor modesty; he listened in silence, as impassive as a stone god.

“Eleven dead, twenty-five wounded,” repeated the alienist after the visitors had left. “Two beautiful cases. This barber shows unmistakable symptoms of psychopathic duplicity. As for proof of the insanity of the people who acclaim him, what more could one ask than the fact that eleven were killed and twenty-five wounded? Two beautiful cases!”

“Long live our glorious Protector!” shouted thirty-odd people who had been awaiting the barber in front of the house.

The alienist went to the window and heard part of the barber’s speech:

“. . . for my main concern, day and night, is to execute faithfully the will of the people. Trust in me and you will not be disappointed. I ask of you only one thing: be peaceful, maintain order. For order, my friends, is the foundation on which government must rest.”

“Long live Porfírio!” shouted the people, waving their hats.

“Two beautiful cases,” murmured the alienist.

X. The Restoration

Within a week there were fifty additional patients in the Green House, all of them strong supporters of the new government. The people felt outraged. The government was stunned; it did not know how to react. João Pina, another barber, said openly that Porfírio had “sold his birthright to Simão Bacamarte for a pot of gold”—a phrase that attracted some of the more indignant citizens to Pina’s side. Porfírio, seeing his competitor at the head of a potential insurrection, knew that he would be overthrown if he did not immediately change his course. He therefore issued two decrees, one abolishing the Green House and the other banishing the alienist from Itaguai.