Three graveyard cypresses at the riverside edge of the Mocambo neighborhood marked the entrance to the Church of Santos-o-Velho. As Pêro’s coach approached, bouncing along the stony road, he felt queasy as if he’d eaten something disagreeable that morning. Why has Padre Matos called this meeting? He shifted in his seat and stared at the chapel poised on a precipice of rock along the Tagus River.
Why has Padre Matos called this meeting?The coach passed the Templar cross monument in front of the Flor da Murta Palace and then the Convent of the Bernardas. Pêro paid the coachman and the buggy lurched forward, the horse clopping away echoing his heartbeat.
Pêro entered the dim church, built on the site where the three saints for whom it was named were martyred: Veríssimo, Máxima, and Júlia.
