nine o’clock in the morning
The doomed man , who had now but a few hours to live , was left alone . AND SO the order had come , and , as Judge Jarriquez had foreseen , it was an order requiring the immediate execution of the sentence pronounced on Joam Dacosta . No proof had been produced ; justice must take its course . It was the very day -- the 31st of August , at nine o'clock in the morning of which the condemned man was to perish on the gallows . The death penalty in Brazil is generally commuted except in the case of negroes , but this time it was to be suffered by a white man . Such are the penal arrangements relative to crimes in the diamond arrayal , for which , in the public interest , the law allows no appear to mercy . Nothing could now save Joam Dacosta .