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The most significant fact about Salazar's relationship with the Countess is that not even the gossipy Portuguese, not even Salazar's thousands of enemies, sug gest that she is his mistress. His reputation for piety is so great that a liaison is considered unthinkable. Many Portuguese hope the rumors that he intends to marry are true; they say marriage might humanize the man whom most of them fear, but whom few love.
The Lust for Power. In recent months Salazar has seemed to need a mellowing influence more than ever. He was so disillusioned by the adverse criticism in last fall's brief interlude of freedom that he almost quit his job. His attitude toward public office lost much of its humility; he felt now that he really understood the worst in his people, that he had plumbed the depths of popular perfidy and ingratitude. He used to think that he had been called by Providence to save his country; he now feels a martyr condemned (because he alone is right) to save Portugal in spite of herself. A touch of arrogance always present in his make-up (he never lets associates or even visitors smoke in his presence) has been growing noticeably. Now he seems to enjoy the power to suppress criticism.
This tendency spells more influence for the extreme right wing of Salazar's Cabinet. The Army clique, headed by bull-necked Lieut. Colonel Santos Costa, a fanatic totalitarian, is important, although Portugal's military prowess has been dormant for four centuries; in World War I the Portugese soldiers were considered by many critics to have been the least effective of the 16 fighting nationalities. Costa and the Interior Minister, Lieut. Colonel Julio Botelho Moniz, who bosses the political police, work on Salazar's fear of "chaos" (the familiar justification of dictators) to get his permission for more & more restrictive measures against possible rebels.
A relatively liberal wing in the Cabinet took heart during the period of freedom. The cleavage between it and Costa's followers is widening, and Salazar may soon have to choose between them.
The Long, Languid Reign. The 8,000,000 Portuguese whom Salazar rules inherit the memory, but not the courageous spirit, of Magellan, Prince Henry the Navigator and Vasco da Gama. After the great age of discovery, plague, famine and emigration sapped the nation's strength. Portugal's 16th Century one-eyed demi-Homer. Luis de Camoens, noting the decline, asked in his Lusiad:
. . . And has one languid reign
Fix'd in your tainted, souls so deep a stain
That now, degenerate from your noble sires,
The last dim spark of Lusian flame expires?
The "one languid reign" prolonged itself through generations of more or less useless kings and dictators. Portugal's economy was precariously maintained by cork and port and citrus fruit and sardines from the homeland, and coffee and sisal from the colonies. Her political survival was assured by the alliance with Britain, which expected no active military help from Portugal, but considered it as the most reliable bridgehead to the Continent.