4 October 1582. Ugo Buocompagni and Hernando Gómez de Lemos are arriving on time.
Buocompagni is the most important person in the world. For the past ten years has moved from Bologna to Rome for Pope Gregory XIII. While cast glances at the clock in the room, think about tomorrow. It is said that in ten minutes, at midnight, your name will be in history.
Gomez feels the most miserable person in the world. Twenty-five years ago has left Manchester to be an hidalgo more in the Indies. Prisoner in the distant San Juan de la Frontera, seeks to guess the time by the position of the sun's rays, that slip between the reeds. Think about tomorrow, but nothing is confident and knows that enter into oblivion.
can not be known, but we can suppose that happens in those ten minutes. Buocompagni recalls the old story that has been watching that clock. It all starts when Julius Caesar in 46
a. C., implements the Julian calendar. Well for the time, but with an error: the year lasted 365.25 days and non-Pope mumbles, recalling the session in the Commission's calendar that he has presided over ": 365.242189. Over the centuries, the error has been a gap of ten days already upset at the commemorations. Take Easter for example, Gregory says in his mind, repeating what other times. We know that, since the Council of Nicea, Easter is celebrated the Sunday following the full moon after the spring equinox. Well, when Nicaea in 325, the equinox was on March 21 and this year we had on 11 March. Gregory XIII is not performing miracles. Is considered, rather, a lawyer and scientist. Now he's going to end this mess. Calendar reform, passed two years ago, just now beginning to take effect at midnight on 4 October. Gregorian calendar Buocompagni repeated several times, while the time is coming.
Gomez also recounts the history that has made watching the sun among the reeds. The long trip to Chile, across the strait. The struggles with the Indian. The secret love in the arms of Dona Teresa. The desperate flight. Crossing the Cordillera Blanca. The ruthless hunting. The side of Don Martín Ruiz de Gamboa, Captain General of Chile, to arrest the so Gómez de Lemos, who runs away to Tucumán with a married woman who goes against the will of her husband. That, as the sole punishment, on October 5, neither more nor less, is hung in the square, until it dies naturally. We have arrested a month ago, and there is no escape. He knows that Ronquillo, Lt. Corregidor San Juan, is sympathetic to their cause, but who is bound hand and foot to the detailed order of his superior. Late afternoon in San Juan. Gomez feels a gallop. Fantasea with the long arm of king Philip III has heard their cries, their pleas for justice, and sent a royal pardon. Imagine the bearer of identity card, starting from Madrid to Cadiz swift, counting the days on the journey to the port of Santa Maria del Buen Ayre, and then exhausted horses to these distances. But no, "says Gomez, while moving the head, no time given. Not even the king can save me.
We can assume that it is then converge Hugo Buocompagni worlds and Hernando Gómez de Lemos. Dan noon in Rome. Begins to govern the Gregorian calendar. Late afternoon in San Juan de la Frontera. Corregidor Lt. Ronquillo opens the door of the hut that served as makeshift prison. Gregory, the pope who does not do miracles, see the city lights, as ever, Julius Caesar. Has come to this, "says Gomez Ronquillo waving a paper with a cross. There is a new calendar. Tomorrow is 15. On October 5 has disappeared.
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