On The Red Morning of the feast of Corpus Christi the mutinous convicts slew the general and his officers. Neruda, the leader, ordered brandy distributed and the whiteskinned women freed. They died of the fatal embrace of the fourhundred. Their frenzied and delirious ecstasy of freedom turned to despair, when four of His Majesty's ships were sighted at noon. The anger of the galley slaves attacked Neruda like a wild beast. They throttled him, spat green bile into his face, and tied him to the mast. On their knees, hands stretched out in supplication, they howled at the soldiers of the king. Iron cufls snapped around knuckles that had for half a day proudly boasted pale rings of unfettered freedom. Fortyeight hours later the ships put into the harbour of the capital city, and three days later the mutineers were already subjected to the sentence of the criminal court. On the large town square ten gallows had been erected. Houses displayed festive decorations. Winding garlands and wreaths. People crowded to windows and howled with impatience. The king and a small band of courtiers were seated an a balcony. He nibbled tropical fruits from a crystal bowl placed in front of him. The ladies opened their jingling fans. Preparations had been made to hang fifty of the criminals at the one time, five on each of the gallows. The gallows were specially built : two wooden beams, a little taller than on average man's height, were connected by a strong crossbeam. On low flatcarts, drawn by horses with red plumage blossoming between their ears, the column of the first fifty rattled through the prison gates. When the brilliance of the blue sky fell terribly upon their eyes, they saw green wreaths flowing and black rectangular spaces dancing between the gallows, and they burst into a scream that the jubilant crowd received with happy reverberations. They themselves had to fasten the ha;ngman's knot that dangled from their necks to the huge nails on the crossbeams. The hangman's helpers snatched the ladders from under their trembling feet. They quivered like eels on the hook. Some of them paddled their empty hands as if shuffling water. Others climbed a steep hill with quick steps. But soon they all hung like deflated rubber tubes. They were cut down and their warm flesh was taken away on shrieking carts. But already the tongue of the next fifty hissed out of the prison gate. Street vendors sold oranges. The yellow balls flew from hand to hand. Dandies let them rise glittering to windows with faces of girls in them. The broken eyes of dying men saw them circle the roofs like so many moons. When for the third time the carts of fifty thundered onto the square, the jubilation of the crowd rose to its impetuous climax. The first cart was drawn by a stumbling, mangy nag with festering eyes. Neruda sat on it backwards and held in his shackled hands the braided tail of the animal. His hot eyes sparked into rows of laughing people. And when someone called him a dirty name, he showered his opponent with a flood of horrible and vulgar expletives, so that he drew back his head as if avoiding dish water. After the next wave of fifty smashed against the gallows and broke into quivering droplets, the festivities came to a halt, because actors and dancers, flutists and kettledrummers, magicians and swordswallowers appeared. A brownskinned girl, clothed in transparent red silk, danced before the king. She was like a red poppy swaying in the wind of flutes - a tongue of flame dancing an the crackling hide of drums. A high-pitched scream pierced the king like a thrust from a slender dagger. She sank into a small heap of ashes still aglow with the red embers of her robe. She was carried away and trumpet fanfares announced the continuation of the executions. Fifty bell clappers made of flesh crashed loudly against the beams of the wooden clocks pealing the last hour. The horses went lame from the heavy work and had to be driven on with whips. The crowd became restless and grumbled because the hangings pro-ceeded so slowly, and many started to leave. Even the king had left after giving the Leader of the band of jugglers permission to send the girl to the castle in the evening to dance for him. The hoofs of the horses clattered over the empty square. Tired windows clinked shut. Thin streaks of rain squirted from the sky. The last fifty died completely unnoticed.