Don Vicente Torrellas

Don Vicente Torrellas dies in a sudden reversal of a supposed betrayal: Claudia Jerónima, believing he is about to marry another woman, shoots him, only to learn from his dying words that the report was false. His death turns a jealous attempt to defend her honor into irreversible grief and remorse.

Identity and Pledge

Claudia describes Don Vicente as the son of her family’s opposing faction and as the man who courted her and pledged himself to her. She says she accepted his promise and made the same pledge to him, though they had taken matters no further. Their relationship therefore rests on mutual promises, not on an established marriage.

The apparent rupture begins when Claudia hears that Don Vicente has forgotten his pledge and is to marry Leonora, daughter of the rich Balvastro. The news reaches her before the expected betrothal, and she treats it as proof of his betrayal. The account later reveals that this crucial report was untrue.

The Wounding and Revelation

Believing the marriage news, Claudia disguises herself and rides after Don Vicente. Without first confronting him or hearing an explanation, she fires a musket and then two pistols, believing she has struck him with more than two bullets. She leaves him with his servants and seeks Roque Guinart, asking for safe passage to France and protection for her father from Don Vicente’s kinsmen.

Roque and Claudia find Don Vicente being carried by his servants. Weak with pain, he asks them to leave him there to die. Claudia approaches him, reproaching him for not having kept their compact. He recognizes her and denies that he meant to wrong her. When she asks specifically whether he was going to marry Leonora that morning, he says he was not: the false report, he believes, has driven her jealousy to take his life.

Don Vicente offers to take Claudia as his wife, saying he has no better satisfaction to offer for the wrong she imagines she has suffered. She grasps his hands, but the recognition that she has acted on a false belief overwhelms her. She faints against his bleeding breast as he suffers a death spasm and dies. His offer cannot repair the misunderstanding in time to save either their future together or his life.

Death and Aftermath

When Claudia recovers, she confirms that Don Vicente is dead and gives way to grief. She tears her hair, strikes her face, and laments that jealousy led her to act so rashly; she mourns him as the husband whose unhappy fate was to be hers, though the account has shown only their pledges and his final offer of marriage. Her language registers both loss and self-accusation: she understands that the act meant to defend her honor has destroyed the person she loved.

Roque Guinart orders Don Vicente’s servants to carry his body to his father’s nearby village for burial. Claudia resolves to enter a monastery and spend her life there. Roque offers to accompany her and protect her father, but she declines his escort. Don Vicente’s death thus closes the possibility of clarification or reconciliation and leaves Claudia to choose a life of withdrawal.