The Treasure — Eca de Queiros / Jose Maria Eca De Queiros

"Dead how? As all of the men of the de Medranhos family were meant to die: doing battle with the Turk!"

In "The Treasure," three down-at-heel noblemen, the de Medranhos brothers, stumble across a chest full of Moorish gold in the forest of Roquelanes and plan to carry it up the mountains to their wrecked manor, the Paços de Medranhos.

In his diary, Julio Ramón Ribeyro notes: "Last night I woke up dreaming about Eça de Queirós and lay awake for an hour remembering his novels. I think I remembered them all, even though I read them when I was between fifteen and eighteen. I remembered odd details: for example, that two of them, _The Relic_ and _The Illustrious House of Ramires_ contain in turn other novels, written by the protagonists of the main novels. I remembered the similarities between many of his works and those of Flaubert, whom he admired so much. I remembered his excellent journalistic reports, mainly those from London and from Paris, and the letters of Fadrique Mendes. And his stories, many of them unforgettable, such as 'A Blonde Girl's Eccentricities,' 'The Treasure,' and 'The Deceased Man,' which my father once read to us."

Genre: short story
Words: 2,600