Killing Dr. da Cunha - The Scramble for the Amazon and the Lost Paradise of Euclides da Cunha - page 366

to visit the obviously enraged Euclides, and returned to the house in Piedade extremely
upset. He pleaded with Ana to return to Copacabana that night. 53
Solon left the da Cunha house with some money given to him by an anguished Euc-
lides and, armed with his father's pistol, set off to Piedade. On arriving he sought his
motherintheparlor,whereshesatwithDilermando.SolonreportedtoAnathathisfath-
erwasextremelyagitatedandsaidthatshemustimmediatelyreturnhomewithhim.Ana
refused to do so, noting that the night was extremely stormy. The panicked Solon was
soon embroiled in a heated argument with Dilermando and Ana, demanding that Ana
promise that she would return to the da Cunha house and that she swear that she was at
the de Assis home as though it were the domicile of a son. 54
It is not clear exactly when Solon pulled out the gun and aimed it at the lovers. Ac-
cording to Ana's testimony, 55 he announced that if what his father had said was true, he
would have to kill Dilermando—clearly that was why he had come to the house armed.
In his own testimony Solon reported that he pulled out the gun because Dilermando said
he would throw Solon out of the house if he kept insisting that his mother traipse home
that night in such foul weather. Solon replied, “If you eject me from this house, I'll dis-
patch you from this world.” 56
Somehow this escalating argument was defused and this particular oedipal gun battle
averted. Ana agreed that she would leave very early the next the morning with Solon.
The calming genie of the de Assis household, Dinorah, succeeded in distracting Solon
byinvitinghimtoplaychess.Solon,comforted,sleptinDinorah'sroom,buttheytalked
until very late at night. 57
In what state was Euclides? Ana was gone: she had left him, he had thrown her out,
and regardless of his contempt for her, his wounded pride, his own madness, he knew
thehumiliationthatattendedherromancewouldturntheprivatesniggersabouthiminto
unbearable public ridicule. He had to deal with his children. His wife and oldest son had
both departed on the bitterest possible terms. “I have to make a clean slate of things,” he
declared that evening as he smoked and paced. According to Neném, he vowed to kill
Dilermando the next day. 58 At this point, with his health ruined, his family ravaged, his
best professional days apparently behind him, he had little to preserve but his honor.
EuclideshadgonetoamovietheweekbeforewithHenriqueCoelhoNeto—awestern
where the betrayed husband had killed the lover—and perhaps this plot element echoed
intohisdistress.ThenearestwitnessestohisstateofmindweretheRattosisters,looking
after Afonso and Quidinho, perhaps reveling in the intrigue, and stoking the engines of
his fury. That evening Euclides was bordering on the hysterical: “Angelica, I've gone
mad, I no longer care to live, my son Solon has said he'll never enter this house again,
thatwe'recompletelyirreconcilable. . .”Hespenttherestoftheeveningchain-smoking
and striding around furiously in his office. The Rattos retired to the upper rooms. 59