Title: The Reign of Greed
Author: Rizal, José
Language: English
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                           THE REIGN OF GREED

                     A Complete English Version of
                 El Filibusterismo from the Spanish of

                               José Rizal

                                   By

                           Charles Derbyshire


                                 Manila
                      Philippine Education Company
                                  1912



TRANSLATOR’S INTRODUCTION


El Filibusterismo, the second of José Rizal’s novels of Philippine
life, is a story of the last days of the Spanish régime in the
Philippines. Under the name of The Reign of Greed it is for the first
time translated into English. Written some four or five years after
Noli Me Tangere, the book represents Rizal’s more mature judgment on
political and social conditions in the islands, and in its graver and
less hopeful tone reflects the disappointments and discouragements
which he had encountered in his efforts to lead the way to reform.
Rizal’s dedication to the first edition is of special interest, as the
writing of it was one of the grounds of accusation against him when he
was condemned to death in 1896. It reads:


    “To the memory of the priests, Don Mariano Gomez (85 years old),
    Don José Burgos (30 years old), and Don Jacinto Zamora (35 years
    old). Executed in Bagumbayan Field on the 28th of February, 1872.

    “The Church, by refusing to degrade you, has placed in doubt the
    crime that has been imputed to you; the Government, by surrounding
    your trials with mystery and shadows, causes the belief that there
    was some error, committed in fatal moments; and all the
    Philippines, by worshiping your memory and calling you martyrs, in
    no sense recognizes your culpability. In so far, therefore, as your
    complicity in the Cavite mutiny is not clearly proved, as you may
    or may not have been patriots, and as you may or may not have
    cherished sentiments for justice and for liberty, I have the right
    to dedicate my work to you as victims of the evil which I undertake
    to combat. And while we await expectantly upon Spain some day to
    restore your good name and cease to be answerable for your death,
    let these pages serve as a tardy wreath of dried leaves over your
    unknown tombs, and let it be understood that every one who without
    clear proofs attacks your memory stains his hands in your blood!

        J. Rizal.”


A brief recapitulation of the story in Noli Me Tangere (The Social
Cancer) is essential to an understanding of such plot as there is in
the present work, which the author called a “continuation” of the first
story.

Juan Crisostomo Ibarra is a young Filipino, who, after studying for
seven years in Europe, returns to his native land to find that his
father, a wealthy landowner, has died in prison as the result of a
quarrel with the parish curate, a Franciscan friar named Padre Damaso.
Ibarra is engaged to a beautiful and accomplished girl, Maria Clara,
the supposed daughter and only child of the rich Don Santiago de los
Santos, commonly known as “Capitan Tiago,” a typical Filipino cacique,
the predominant character fostered by the friar régime.

Ibarra resolves to forego all quarrels and to work for the betterment
of his people. To show his good intentions, he seeks to establish, at
his own expense, a public school in his native town. He meets with
ostensible support from all, especially Padre Damaso’s successor, a
young and gloomy Franciscan named Padre Salvi, for whom Maria Clara
confesses to an instinctive dread.

At the laying of the corner-stone for the new schoolhouse a suspicious
accident, apparently aimed at Ibarra’s life, occurs, but the
festivities proceed until the dinner, where Ibarra is grossly and
wantonly insulted over the memory of his father by Fray Damaso. The
young man loses control of himself and is about to kill the friar, who
is saved by the intervention of Maria Clara.

Ibarra is excommunicated, and Capitan Tiago, through his fear of the
friars, is forced to break the engagement and agree to the marriage of
Maria Clara with a young and inoffensive Spaniard provided by Padre
Damaso. Obedient to her reputed father’s command and influenced by her
mysterious dread of Padre Salvi, Maria Clara consents to this
arrangement, but becomes seriously ill, only to be saved by medicines
sent secretly by Ibarra and clandestinely administered by a girl
friend.

Ibarra succeeds in having the excommunication removed, but before he
can explain matters an uprising against the Civil Guard is secretly
brought about through agents of Padre Salvi, and the leadership is
ascribed to Ibarra to ruin him. He is warned by a mysterious friend, an
outlaw called Elias, whose life he had accidentally saved; but desiring
first to see Maria Clara, he refuses to make his escape, and when the
outbreak occurs he is arrested as the instigator of it and thrown into
prison in Manila.

On the evening when Capitan Tiago gives a ball in his Manila house to
celebrate his supposed daughter’s engagement, Ibarra makes his escape
from prison and succeeds in seeing Maria Clara alone. He begins to
reproach her because it is a letter written to her before he went to
Europe which forms the basis of the charge against him, but she clears
herself of treachery to him. The letter had been secured from her by
false representations and in exchange for two others written by her
mother just before her birth, which prove that Padre Damaso is her real
father. These letters had been accidentally discovered in the convento
by Padre Salvi, who made use of them to intimidate the girl and get
possession of Ibarra’s letter, from which he forged others to
incriminate the young man. She tells him that she will marry the young
Spaniard, sacrificing herself thus to save her mother’s name and
Capitan Tiago’s honor and to prevent a public scandal, but that she
will always remain true to him.

Ibarra’s escape had been effected by Elias, who conveys him in a banka
up the Pasig to the Lake, where they are so closely beset by the Civil
Guard that Elias leaps into the water and draws the pursuers away from
the boat, in which Ibarra lies concealed.

On Christmas Eve, at the tomb of the Ibarras in a gloomy wood, Elias
appears, wounded and dying, to find there a boy named Basilio beside
the corpse of his mother, a poor woman who had been driven to insanity
by her husband’s neglect and abuses on the part of the Civil Guard, her
younger son having disappeared some time before in the convento, where
he was a sacristan. Basilio, who is ignorant of Elias’s identity, helps
him to build a funeral pyre, on which his corpse and the madwoman’s are
to be burned.

Upon learning of the reported death of Ibarra in the chase on the Lake,
Maria Clara becomes disconsolate and begs her supposed godfather, Fray
Damaso, to put her in a nunnery. Unconscious of her knowledge of their
true relationship, the friar breaks down and confesses that all the
trouble he has stirred up with the Ibarras has been to prevent her from
marrying a native, which would condemn her and her children to the
oppressed and enslaved class. He finally yields to her entreaties and
she enters the nunnery of St. Clara, to which Padre Salvi is soon
assigned in a ministerial capacity.



        O masters, lords, and rulers in all lands,
        Is this the handiwork you give to God,
        This monstrous thing distorted and soul-quenched?
        How will you ever straighten up this shape-;
        Touch it again with immortality;
        Give back the upward looking and the light;
        Rebuild in it the music and the dream;
        Make right the immemorial infamies,
        Perfidious wrongs, immedicable woes?

        O masters, lords, and rulers in all lands,
        How will the future reckon with this man?
        How answer his brute question in that hour
        When whirlwinds of rebellion shake the world?
        How will it be with kingdoms and with kings—
        With those who shaped him to the thing he is—
        When this dumb terror shall reply to God,
        After the silence of the centuries?

                                                Edwin Markham



CONTENTS


        I.         On the Upper Deck
        II.        On the Lower Deck
        III.       Legends
        IV.        Cabesang Tales
        V.         A Cochero’s Christmas Eve
        VI.        Basilio
        VII.       Simoun
        VIII.      Merry Christmas
        IX.        Pilates
        X.         Wealth and Want
        XI.        Los Baños
        XII.       Placido Penitente
        XIII.      The Class in Physics
        XIV.       In the House of the Students
        XV.        Señor Pasta
        XVI.       The Tribulations of a Chinese
        XVII.      The Quiapo Pair
        XVIII.     Legerdemain
        XIX.       The Fuse
        XX.        The Arbiter
        XXI.       Manila Types
        XXII.      The Performance
        XXIII.     A Corpse
        XXIV.      Dreams
        XXV.       Smiles and Tears
        XXVI.      Pasquinades
        XXVII.     The Friar and the Filipino
        XXVIII.    Tatakut
        XXIX.      Exit Capitan Tiago
        XXX.       Juli
        XXXI.      The High Official
        XXXII.     Effect of the Pasquinades
        XXXIII.    La Ultima Razón
        XXXIV.     The Wedding
        XXXV.      The Fiesta
        XXXVI.     Ben-Zayb’s Afflictions
        XXXVII.    The Mystery
        XXXVIII.   Fatality
        XXXIX.     Conclusion



CHAPTER I

ON THE UPPER DECK

                                                     Sic itur ad astra.


One morning in December the steamer Tabo was laboriously ascending the
tortuous course of the Pasig, carrying a large crowd of passengers
toward the province of La Laguna. She was a heavily built steamer,
almost round, like the tabú from which she derived her name, quite
dirty in spite of her pretensions to whiteness, majestic and grave from
her leisurely motion. Altogether, she was held in great affection in
that region, perhaps from her Tagalog name, or from the fact that she
bore the characteristic impress of things in the country, representing
something like a triumph over progress, a steamer that was not a
steamer at all, an organism, stolid, imperfect yet unimpeachable,
which, when it wished to pose as being rankly progressive, proudly
contented itself with putting on a fresh coat of paint. Indeed, the
happy steamer was genuinely Filipino! If a person were only reasonably
considerate, she might even have been taken for the Ship of State,
constructed, as she had been, under the inspection of Reverendos and
Ilustrísimos....

Bathed in the sunlight of a morning that made the waters of the river
sparkle and the breezes rustle in the bending bamboo on its banks,
there she goes with her white silhouette throwing out great clouds of
smoke—the Ship of State, so the joke runs, also has the vice of
smoking! The whistle shrieks at every moment, hoarse and commanding
like a tyrant who would rule by shouting, so that no one on board can
hear his own thoughts. She menaces everything she meets: now she looks
as though she would grind to bits the salambaw, insecure fishing
apparatus which in their movements resemble skeletons of giants
saluting an antediluvian tortoise; now she speeds straight toward the
clumps of bamboo or against the amphibian structures, karihan, or
wayside lunch-stands, which, amid gumamelas and other flowers, look
like indecisive bathers who with their feet already in the water cannot
bring themselves to make the final plunge; at times, following a sort
of channel marked out in the river by tree-trunks, she moves along with
a satisfied air, except when a sudden shock disturbs the passengers and
throws them off their balance, all the result of a collision with a
sand-bar which no one dreamed was there.

Moreover, if the comparison with the Ship of State is not yet complete,
note the arrangement of the passengers. On the lower deck appear brown
faces and black heads, types of Indians, [1] Chinese, and mestizos,
wedged in between bales of merchandise and boxes, while there on the
upper deck, beneath an awning that protects them from the sun, are
seated in comfortable chairs a few passengers dressed in the fashion of
Europeans, friars, and government clerks, each with his puro cigar, and
gazing at the landscape apparently without heeding the efforts of the
captain and the sailors to overcome the obstacles in the river.

The captain was a man of kindly aspect, well along in years, an old
sailor who in his youth had plunged into far vaster seas, but who now
in his age had to exercise much greater attention, care, and vigilance
to avoid dangers of a trivial character. And they were the same for
each day: the same sand-bars, the same hulk of unwieldy steamer wedged
into the same curves, like a corpulent dame in a jammed throng. So, at
each moment, the good man had to stop, to back up, to go forward at
half speed, sending—now to port, now to starboard—the five sailors
equipped with long bamboo poles to give force to the turn the rudder
had suggested. He was like a veteran who, after leading men through
hazardous campaigns, had in his age become the tutor of a capricious,
disobedient, and lazy boy.

Doña Victorina, the only lady seated in the European group, could say
whether the Tabo was not lazy, disobedient, and capricious—Doña
Victorina, who, nervous as ever, was hurling invectives against the
cascos, bankas, rafts of coconuts, the Indians paddling about, and even
the washerwomen and bathers, who fretted her with their mirth and
chatter. Yes, the Tabo would move along very well if there were no
Indians in the river, no Indians in the country, yes, if there were not
a single Indian in the world—regardless of the fact that the helmsmen
were Indians, the sailors Indians, Indians the engineers, Indians
ninety-nine per cent, of the passengers, and she herself also an Indian
if the rouge were scratched off and her pretentious gown removed. That
morning Doña Victorina was more irritated than usual because the
members of the group took very little notice of her, reason for which
was not lacking; for just consider—there could be found three friars,
convinced that the world would move backwards the very day they should
take a single step to the right; an indefatigable Don Custodio who was
sleeping peacefully, satisfied with his projects; a prolific writer
like Ben-Zayb (anagram of Ibañez), who believed that the people of
Manila thought because he, Ben-Zayb, was a thinker; a canon like Padre
Irene, who added luster to the clergy with his rubicund face, carefully
shaven, from which towered a beautiful Jewish nose, and his silken
cassock of neat cut and small buttons; and a wealthy jeweler like
Simoun, who was reputed to be the adviser and inspirer of all the acts
of his Excellency, the Captain-General—just consider the presence there
of these pillars sine quibus non of the country, seated there in
agreeable discourse, showing little sympathy for a renegade Filipina
who dyed her hair red! Now wasn’t this enough to exhaust the patience
of a female Job—a sobriquet Doña Victorina always applied to herself
when put out with any one!

The ill-humor of the señora increased every time the captain shouted
“Port,” “Starboard” to the sailors, who then hastily seized their poles
and thrust them against the banks, thus with the strength of their legs
and shoulders preventing the steamer from shoving its hull ashore at
that particular point. Seen under these circumstances the Ship of State
might be said to have been converted from a tortoise into a crab every
time any danger threatened.

“But, captain, why don’t your stupid steersmen go in that direction?”
asked the lady with great indignation.

“Because it’s very shallow in the other, señora,” answered the captain,
deliberately, slowly winking one eye, a little habit which he had
cultivated as if to say to his words on their way out, “Slowly,
slowly!”

“Half speed! Botheration, half speed!” protested Doña Victorina
disdainfully. “Why not full?”

“Because we should then be traveling over those ricefields, señora,”
replied the imperturbable captain, pursing his lips to indicate the
cultivated fields and indulging in two circumspect winks.

This Doña Victorina was well known in the country for her caprices and
extravagances. She was often seen in society, where she was tolerated
whenever she appeared in the company of her niece, Paulita Gomez, a
very beautiful and wealthy orphan, to whom she was a kind of guardian.
At a rather advanced age she had married a poor wretch named Don
Tiburcio de Espadaña, and at the time we now see her, carried upon
herself fifteen years of wedded life, false frizzes, and a
half-European costume—for her whole ambition had been to Europeanize
herself, with the result that from the ill-omened day of her wedding
she had gradually, thanks to her criminal attempts, succeeded in so
transforming herself that at the present time Quatrefages and Virchow
together could not have told where to classify her among the known
races.

Her husband, who had borne all her impositions with the resignation of
a fakir through so many years of married life, at last on one luckless
day had had his bad half-hour and administered to her a superb whack
with his crutch. The surprise of Madam Job at such an inconsistency of
character made her insensible to the immediate effects, and only after
she had recovered from her astonishment and her husband had fled did
she take notice of the pain, then remaining in bed for several days, to
the great delight of Paulita, who was very fond of joking and laughing
at her aunt. As for her husband, horrified at the impiety of what
appeared to him to be a terrific parricide, he took to flight, pursued
by the matrimonial furies (two curs and a parrot), with all the speed
his lameness permitted, climbed into the first carriage he encountered,
jumped into the first banka he saw on the river, and, a Philippine
Ulysses, began to wander from town to town, from province to province,
from island to island, pursued and persecuted by his bespectacled
Calypso, who bored every one that had the misfortune to travel in her
company. She had received a report of his being in the province of La
Laguna, concealed in one of the towns, so thither she was bound to
seduce him back with her dyed frizzes.

Her fellow travelers had taken measures of defense by keeping up among
themselves a lively conversation on any topic whatsoever. At that
moment the windings and turnings of the river led them to talk about
straightening the channel and, as a matter of course, about the port
works. Ben-Zayb, the journalist with the countenance of a friar, was
disputing with a young friar who in turn had the countenance of an
artilleryman. Both were shouting, gesticulating, waving their arms,
spreading out their hands, stamping their feet, talking of levels,
fish-corrals, the San Mateo River, [2] of cascos, of Indians, and so
on, to the great satisfaction of their listeners and the undisguised
disgust of an elderly Franciscan, remarkably thin and withered, and a
handsome Dominican about whose lips flitted constantly a scornful
smile.

The thin Franciscan, understanding the Dominican’s smile, decided to
intervene and stop the argument. He was undoubtedly respected, for with
a wave of his hand he cut short the speech of both at the moment when
the friar-artilleryman was talking about experience and the
journalist-friar about scientists.

“Scientists, Ben-Zayb—do you know what they are?” asked the Franciscan
in a hollow voice, scarcely stirring in his seat and making only a
faint gesture with his skinny hand. “Here you have in the province a
bridge, constructed by a brother of ours, which was not completed
because the scientists, relying on their theories, condemned it as weak
and scarcely safe—yet look, it is the bridge that has withstood all the
floods and earthquakes!” [3]

“That’s it, puñales, that very thing, that was exactly what I was going
to say!” exclaimed the friar-artilleryman, thumping his fists down on
the arms of his bamboo chair. “That’s it, that bridge and the
scientists! That was just what I was going to mention, Padre
Salvi—puñales!”

Ben-Zayb remained silent, half smiling, either out of respect or
because he really did not know what to reply, and yet his was the only
thinking head in the Philippines! Padre Irene nodded his approval as he
rubbed his long nose.

Padre Salvi, the thin and withered cleric, appeared to be satisfied
with such submissiveness and went on in the midst of the silence: “But
this does not mean that you may not be as near right as Padre Camorra”
(the friar-artilleryman). “The trouble is in the lake—”

“The fact is there isn’t a single decent lake in this country,”
interrupted Doña Victorina, highly indignant, and getting ready for a
return to the assault upon the citadel.

The besieged gazed at one another in terror, but with the promptitude
of a general, the jeweler Simoun rushed in to the rescue. “The remedy
is very simple,” he said in a strange accent, a mixture of English and
South American. “And I really don’t understand why it hasn’t occurred
to somebody.”

All turned to give him careful attention, even the Dominican. The
jeweler was a tall, meager, nervous man, very dark, dressed in the
English fashion and wearing a pith helmet. Remarkable about him was his
long white hair contrasted with a sparse black beard, indicating a
mestizo origin. To avoid the glare of the sun he wore constantly a pair
of enormous blue goggles, which completely hid his eyes and a portion
of his cheeks, thus giving him the aspect of a blind or weak-sighted
person. He was standing with his legs apart as if to maintain his
balance, with his hands thrust into the pockets of his coat.

“The remedy is very simple,” he repeated, “and wouldn’t cost a cuarto.”

The attention now redoubled, for it was whispered in Manila that this
man controlled the Captain-General, and all saw the remedy in process
of execution. Even Don Custodio himself turned to listen.

“Dig a canal straight from the source to the mouth of the river,
passing through Manila; that is, make a new river-channel and fill up
the old Pasig. That would save land, shorten communication, and prevent
the formation of sandbars.”

The project left all his hearers astounded, accustomed as they were to
palliative measures.

“It’s a Yankee plan!” observed Ben-Zayb, to ingratiate himself with
Simoun, who had spent a long time in North America.

All considered the plan wonderful and so indicated by the movements of
their heads. Only Don Custodio, the liberal Don Custodio, owing to his
independent position and his high offices, thought it his duty to
attack a project that did not emanate from himself—that was a
usurpation! He coughed, stroked the ends of his mustache, and with a
voice as important as though he were at a formal session of the
Ayuntamiento, said, “Excuse me, Señor Simoun, my respected friend, if I
should say that I am not of your opinion. It would cost a great deal of
money and might perhaps destroy some towns.”

“Then destroy them!” rejoined Simoun coldly.

“And the money to pay the laborers?”

“Don’t pay them! Use the prisoners and convicts!”

“But there aren’t enough, Señor Simoun!”

“Then, if there aren’t enough, let all the villagers, the old men, the
youths, the boys, work. Instead of the fifteen days of obligatory
service, let them work three, four, five months for the State, with the
additional obligation that each one provide his own food and tools.”

The startled Don Custodio turned his head to see if there was any
Indian within ear-shot, but fortunately those nearby were rustics, and
the two helmsmen seemed to be very much occupied with the windings of
the river.

“But, Señor Simoun—”

“Don’t fool yourself, Don Custodio,” continued Simoun dryly, “only in
this way are great enterprises carried out with small means. Thus were
constructed the Pyramids, Lake Moeris, and the Colosseum in Rome.
Entire provinces came in from the desert, bringing their tubers to feed
on. Old men, youths, and boys labored in transporting stones, hewing
them, and carrying them on their shoulders under the direction of the
official lash, and afterwards, the survivors returned to their homes or
perished in the sands of the desert. Then came other provinces, then
others, succeeding one another in the work during years. Thus the task
was finished, and now we admire them, we travel, we go to Egypt and to
Home, we extol the Pharaohs and the Antonines. Don’t fool yourself—the
dead remain dead, and might only is considered right by posterity.”

“But, Señor Simoun, such measures might provoke uprisings,” objected
Don Custodio, rather uneasy over the turn the affair had taken.

“Uprisings, ha, ha! Did the Egyptian people ever rebel, I wonder? Did
the Jewish prisoners rebel against the pious Titus? Man, I thought you
were better informed in history!”

Clearly Simoun was either very presumptuous or disregarded
conventionalities! To say to Don Custodio’s face that he did not know
history! It was enough to make any one lose his temper! So it seemed,
for Don Custodio forgot himself and retorted, “But the fact is that
you’re not among Egyptians or Jews!”

“And these people have rebelled more than once,” added the Dominican,
somewhat timidly. “In the times when they were forced to transport
heavy timbers for the construction of ships, if it hadn’t been for the
clerics—”

“Those times are far away,” answered Simoun, with a laugh even drier
than usual. “These islands will never again rebel, no matter how much
work and taxes they have. Haven’t you lauded to me, Padre Salvi,” he
added, turning to the Franciscan, “the house and hospital at Los Baños,
where his Excellency is at present?”

Padre Salvi gave a nod and looked up, evading the question.

“Well, didn’t you tell me that both buildings were constructed by
forcing the people to work on them under the whip of a lay-brother?
Perhaps that wonderful bridge was built in the same way. Now tell me,
did these people rebel?”

“The fact is—they have rebelled before,” replied the Dominican, “and ab
actu ad posse valet illatio!”

“No, no, nothing of the kind,” continued Simoun, starting down a
hatchway to the cabin. “What’s said, is said! And you, Padre Sibyla,
don’t talk either Latin or nonsense. What are you friars good for if
the people can rebel?”

Taking no notice of the replies and protests, Simoun descended the
small companionway that led below, repeating disdainfully, “Bosh,
bosh!”

Padre Sibyla turned pale; this was the first time that he, Vice-Rector
of the University, had ever been credited with nonsense. Don Custodio
turned green; at no meeting in which he had ever found himself had he
encountered such an adversary.

“An American mulatto!” he fumed.

“A British Indian,” observed Ben-Zayb in a low tone.

“An American, I tell you, and shouldn’t I know?” retorted Don Custodio
in ill-humor. “His Excellency has told me so. He’s a jeweler whom the
latter knew in Havana, and, as I suspect, the one who got him
advancement by lending him money. So to repay him he has had him come
here to let him have a chance and increase his fortune by selling
diamonds—imitations, who knows? And he’s so ungrateful, that, after
getting money from the Indians, he wishes—huh!” The sentence was
concluded by a significant wave of the hand.

No one dared to join in this diatribe. Don Custodio could discredit
himself with his Excellency, if he wished, but neither Ben-Zayb, nor
Padre Irene, nor Padre Salvi, nor the offended Padre Sibyla had any
confidence in the discretion of the others.

“The fact is that this man, being an American, thinks no doubt that we
are dealing with the redskins. To talk of these matters on a steamer!
Compel, force the people! And he’s the very person who advised the
expedition to the Carolines and the campaign in Mindanao, which is
going to bring us to disgraceful ruin. He’s the one who has offered to
superintend the building of the cruiser, and I say, what does a
jeweler, no matter how rich and learned he may be, know about naval
construction?”

All this was spoken by Don Custodio in a guttural tone to his neighbor
Ben-Zayb, while he gesticulated, shrugged his shoulders, and from time
to time with his looks consulted the others, who were nodding their
heads ambiguously. The Canon Irene indulged in a rather equivocal
smile, which he half hid with his hand as he rubbed his nose.

“I tell you, Ben-Zayb,” continued Don Custodio, slapping the journalist
on the arm, “all the trouble comes from not consulting the old-timers
here. A project in fine words, and especially with a big appropriation,
with an appropriation in round numbers, dazzles, meets with acceptance
at once, for this!” Here, in further explanation, he rubbed the tip of
his thumb against his middle and forefinger. [4]

“There’s something in that, there’s something in that,” Ben-Zayb
thought it his duty to remark, since in his capacity of journalist he
had to be informed about everything.

“Now look here, before the port works I presented a project, original,
simple, useful, economical, and practicable, for clearing away the bar
in the lake, and it hasn’t been accepted because there wasn’t any of
that in it.” He repeated the movement of his fingers, shrugged his
shoulders, and gazed at the others as though to say, “Have you ever
heard of such a misfortune?”

“May we know what it was?” asked several, drawing nearer and giving him
their attention. The projects of Don Custodio were as renowned as
quacks’ specifics.

Don Custodio was on the point of refusing to explain it from resentment
at not having found any supporters in his diatribe against Simoun.
“When there’s no danger, you want me to talk, eh? And when there is,
you keep quiet!” he was going to say, but that would cause the loss of
a good opportunity, and his project, now that it could not be carried
out, might at least be known and admired.

After blowing out two or three puffs of smoke, coughing, and spitting
through a scupper, he slapped Ben-Zayb on the thigh and asked, “You’ve
seen ducks?”

“I rather think so—we’ve hunted them on the lake,” answered the
surprised journalist.

“No, I’m not talking about wild ducks, I’m talking of the domestic
ones, of those that are raised in Pateros and Pasig. Do you know what
they feed on?”

Ben-Zayb, the only thinking head, did not know—he was not engaged in
that business.

“On snails, man, on snails!” exclaimed Padre Camorra. “One doesn’t have
to be an Indian to know that; it’s sufficient to have eyes!”

“Exactly so, on snails!” repeated Don Custodio, flourishing his
forefinger. “And do you know where they get them?”

Again the thinking head did not know.

“Well, if you had been in the country as many years as I have, you
would know that they fish them out of the bar itself, where they
abound, mixed with the sand.”

“Then your project?”

“Well, I’m coming to that. My idea was to compel all the towns round
about, near the bar, to raise ducks, and you’ll see how they, all by
themselves, will deepen the channel by fishing for the snails—no more
and no less, no more and no less!”

Here Don Custodio extended his arms and gazed triumphantly at the
stupefaction of his hearers—to none of them had occurred such an
original idea.

“Will you allow me to write an article about that?” asked Ben-Zayb. “In
this country there is so little thinking done—”

“But, Don Custodio,” exclaimed Doña Victorina with smirks and grimaces,
“if everybody takes to raising ducks the balot [5] eggs will become
abundant. Ugh, how nasty! Rather, let the bar close up entirely!”



CHAPTER II

ON THE LOWER DECK


There, below, other scenes were being enacted. Seated on benches or
small wooden stools among valises, boxes, and baskets, a few feet from
the engines, in the heat of the boilers, amid the human smells and the
pestilential odor of oil, were to be seen the great majority of the
passengers. Some were silently gazing at the changing scenes along the
banks, others were playing cards or conversing in the midst of the
scraping of shovels, the roar of the engine, the hiss of escaping
steam, the swash of disturbed waters, and the shrieks of the whistle.
In one corner, heaped up like corpses, slept, or tried to sleep, a
number of Chinese pedlers, seasick, pale, frothing through half-opened
lips, and bathed in their copious perspiration. Only a few youths,
students for the most part, easily recognizable from their white
garments and their confident bearing, made bold to move about from
stern to bow, leaping over baskets and boxes, happy in the prospect of
the approaching vacation. Now they commented on the movements of the
engines, endeavoring to recall forgotten notions of physics, now they
surrounded the young schoolgirl or the red-lipped buyera with her
collar of sampaguitas, whispering into their ears words that made them
smile and cover their faces with their fans.

Nevertheless, two of them, instead of engaging in these fleeting
gallantries, stood in the bow talking with a man, advanced in years,
but still vigorous and erect. Both these youths seemed to be well known
and respected, to judge from the deference shown them by their fellow
passengers. The elder, who was dressed in complete black, was the
medical student, Basilio, famous for his successful cures and
extraordinary treatments, while the other, taller and more robust,
although much younger, was Isagani, one of the poets, or at least
rimesters, who that year came from the Ateneo, [6] a curious character,
ordinarily quite taciturn and uncommunicative. The man talking with
them was the rich Capitan Basilio, who was returning from a business
trip to Manila.

“Capitan Tiago is getting along about the same as usual, yes, sir,”
said the student Basilio, shaking his head. “He won’t submit to any
treatment. At the advice of a certain person he is sending me to San
Diego under the pretext of looking after his property, but in reality
so that he may be left to smoke his opium with complete liberty.”

When the student said a certain person, he really meant Padre Irene, a
great friend and adviser of Capitan Tiago in his last days.

“Opium is one of the plagues of modern times,” replied the capitan with
the disdain and indignation of a Roman senator. “The ancients knew
about it but never abused it. While the addiction to classical studies
lasted—mark this well, young men—opium was used solely as a medicine;
and besides, tell me who smoke it the most?—Chinamen, Chinamen who
don’t understand a word of Latin! Ah, if Capitan Tiago had only devoted
himself to Cicero—” Here the most classical disgust painted itself on
his carefully-shaven Epicurean face. Isagani regarded him with
attention: that gentleman was suffering from nostalgia for antiquity.

“But to get back to this academy of Castilian,” Capitan Basilio
continued, “I assure you, gentlemen, that you won’t materialize it.”

“Yes, sir, from day to day we’re expecting the permit,” replied
Isagani. “Padre Irene, whom you may have noticed above, and to whom
we’ve presented a team of bays, has promised it to us. He’s on his way
now to confer with the General.”

“That doesn’t matter. Padre Sibyla is opposed to it.”

“Let him oppose it! That’s why he’s here on the steamer, in order to—at
Los Baños before the General.”

And the student Basilio filled out his meaning by going through the
pantomime of striking his fists together.

“That’s understood,” observed Capitan Basilio, smiling. “But even
though you get the permit, where’ll you get the funds?”

“We have them, sir. Each student has contributed a real.”

“But what about the professors?”

“We have them: half Filipinos and half Peninsulars.” [7]

“And the house?”

“Makaraig, the wealthy Makaraig, has offered one of his.”

Capitan Basilio had to give in; these young men had everything
arranged.

“For the rest,” he said with a shrug of his shoulders, “it’s not
altogether bad, it’s not a bad idea, and now that you can’t know Latin
at least you may know Castilian. Here you have another instance,
namesake, of how we are going backwards. In our times we learned Latin
because our books were in Latin; now you study Latin a little but have
no Latin books. On the other hand, your books are in Castilian and that
language is not taught—aetas parentum pejor avis tulit nos nequiores!
as Horace said.” With this quotation he moved away majestically, like a
Roman emperor.

The youths smiled at each other. “These men of the past,” remarked
Isagani, “find obstacles for everything. Propose a thing to them and
instead of seeing its advantages they only fix their attention on the
difficulties. They want everything to come smooth and round as a
billiard ball.”

“He’s right at home with your uncle,” observed Basilio.

“They talk of past times. But listen—speaking of uncles, what does
yours say about Paulita?”

Isagani blushed. “He preached me a sermon about the choosing of a wife.
I answered him that there wasn’t in Manila another like her—beautiful,
well-bred, an orphan—”

“Very wealthy, elegant, charming, with no defect other than a
ridiculous aunt,” added Basilio, at which both smiled.

“In regard to the aunt, do you know that she has charged me to look for
her husband?”

“Doña Victorina? And you’ve promised, in order to keep your
sweetheart.”

“Naturally! But the fact is that her husband is actually hidden—in my
uncle’s house!”

Both burst into a laugh at this, while Isagani continued: “That’s why
my uncle, being a conscientious man, won’t go on the upper deck,
fearful that Doña Victorina will ask him about Don Tiburcio. Just
imagine, when Doña Victorina learned that I was a steerage passenger
she gazed at me with a disdain that—”

At that moment Simoun came down and, catching sight of the two young
men, greeted Basilio in a patronizing tone: “Hello, Don Basilio, you’re
off for the vacation? Is the gentleman a townsman of yours?”

Basilio introduced Isagani with the remark that he was not a townsman,
but that their homes were not very far apart. Isagani lived on the
seashore of the opposite coast. Simoun examined him with such marked
attention that he was annoyed, turned squarely around, and faced the
jeweler with a provoking stare.

“Well, what is the province like?” the latter asked, turning again to
Basilio.

“Why, aren’t you familiar with it?”

“How the devil am I to know it when I’ve never set foot in it? I’ve
been told that it’s very poor and doesn’t buy jewels.”

“We don’t buy jewels, because we don’t need them,” rejoined Isagani
dryly, piqued in his provincial pride.

A smile played over Simoun’s pallid lips. “Don’t be offended, young
man,” he replied. “I had no bad intentions, but as I’ve been assured
that nearly all the money is in the hands of the native priests, I said
to myself: the friars are dying for curacies and the Franciscans are
satisfied with the poorest, so when they give them up to the native
priests the truth must be that the king’s profile is unknown there. But
enough of that! Come and have a beer with me and we’ll drink to the
prosperity of your province.”

The youths thanked him, but declined the offer.

“You do wrong,” Simoun said to them, visibly taken aback. “Beer is a
good thing, and I heard Padre Camorra say this morning that the lack of
energy noticeable in this country is due to the great amount of water
the inhabitants drink.”

Isagani was almost as tall as the jeweler, and at this he drew himself
up.

“Then tell Padre Camorra,” Basilio hastened to say, while he nudged
Isagani slyly, “tell him that if he would drink water instead of wine
or beer, perhaps we might all be the gainers and he would not give rise
to so much talk.”

“And tell him, also,” added Isagani, paying no attention to his
friend’s nudges, “that water is very mild and can be drunk, but that it
drowns out the wine and beer and puts out the fire, that heated it
becomes steam, and that ruffled it is the ocean, that it once destroyed
mankind and made the earth tremble to its foundations!” [8]

Simoun raised his head. Although his looks could not be read through
the blue goggles, on the rest of his face surprise might be seen.
“Rather a good answer,” he said. “But I fear that he might get
facetious and ask me when the water will be converted into steam and
when into an ocean. Padre Camorra is rather incredulous and is a great
wag.”

“When the fire heats it, when the rivulets that are now scattered
through the steep valleys, forced by fatality, rush together in the
abyss that men are digging,” replied Isagani.

“No, Señor Simoun,” interposed Basilio, changing to a jesting tone,
“rather keep in mind the verses of my friend Isagani himself:


       ‘Fire you, you say, and water we,
        Then as you wish, so let it be;
        But let us live in peace and right,
        Nor shall the fire e’er see us fight;
        So joined by wisdom’s glowing flame,
        That without anger, hate, or blame,
        We form the steam, the fifth element,
        Progress and light, life and movement.’”


“Utopia, Utopia!” responded Simoun dryly. “The engine is about to
meet—in the meantime, I’ll drink my beer.” So, without any word of
excuse, he left the two friends.

“But what’s the matter with you today that you’re so quarrelsome?”
asked Basilio.

“Nothing. I don’t know why, but that man fills me with horror, fear
almost.”

“I was nudging you with my elbow. Don’t you know that he’s called the
Brown Cardinal?”

“The Brown Cardinal?”

“Or Black Eminence, as you wish.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Richelieu had a Capuchin adviser who was called the Gray Eminence;
well, that’s what this man is to the General.”

“Really?”

“That’s what I’ve heard from a certain person,—who always speaks ill of
him behind his back and flatters him to his face.”

“Does he also visit Capitan Tiago?”

“From the first day after his arrival, and I’m sure that a certain
person looks upon him as a rival—in the inheritance. I believe that
he’s going to see the General about the question of instruction in
Castilian.”

At that moment Isagani was called away by a servant to his uncle.

On one of the benches at the stern, huddled in among the other
passengers, sat a native priest gazing at the landscapes that were
successively unfolded to his view. His neighbors made room for him, the
men on passing taking off their hats, and the gamblers not daring to
set their table near where he was. He said little, but neither smoked
nor assumed arrogant airs, nor did he disdain to mingle with the other
men, returning the salutes with courtesy and affability as if he felt
much honored and very grateful. Although advanced in years, with hair
almost completely gray, he appeared to be in vigorous health, and even
when seated held his body straight and his head erect, but without
pride or arrogance. He differed from the ordinary native priests, few
enough indeed, who at that period served merely as coadjutors or
administered some curacies temporarily, in a certain self-possession
and gravity, like one who was conscious of his personal dignity and the
sacredness of his office. A superficial examination of his appearance,
if not his white hair, revealed at once that he belonged to another
epoch, another generation, when the better young men were not afraid to
risk their dignity by becoming priests, when the native clergy looked
any friar at all in the face, and when their class, not yet degraded
and vilified, called for free men and not slaves, superior
intelligences and not servile wills. In his sad and serious features
was to be read the serenity of a soul fortified by study and
meditation, perhaps tried out by deep moral suffering. This priest was
Padre Florentino, Isagani’s uncle, and his story is easily told.

Scion of a wealthy and influential family of Manila, of agreeable
appearance and cheerful disposition, suited to shine in the world, he
had never felt any call to the sacerdotal profession, but by reason of
some promises or vows, his mother, after not a few struggles and
violent disputes, compelled him to enter the seminary. She was a great
friend of the Archbishop, had a will of iron, and was as inexorable as
is every devout woman who believes that she is interpreting the will of
God. Vainly the young Florentine offered resistance, vainly he begged,
vainly he pleaded his love affairs, even provoking scandals: priest he
had to become at twenty-five years of age, and priest he became. The
Archbishop ordained him, his first mass was celebrated with great pomp,
three days were given over to feasting, and his mother died happy and
content, leaving him all her fortune.

But in that struggle Florentine received a wound from which he never
recovered. Weeks before his first mass the woman he loved, in
desperation, married a nobody—a blow the rudest he had ever
experienced. He lost his moral energy, life became dull and
insupportable. If not his virtue and the respect for his office, that
unfortunate love affair saved him from the depths into which the
regular orders and secular clergymen both fall in the Philippines. He
devoted himself to his parishioners as a duty, and by inclination to
the natural sciences.

When the events of seventy-two occurred, [9] he feared that the large
income his curacy yielded him would attract attention to him, so,
desiring peace above everything, he sought and secured his release,
living thereafter as a private individual on his patrimonial estate
situated on the Pacific coast. He there adopted his nephew, Isagani,
who was reported by the malicious to be his own son by his old
sweetheart when she became a widow, and by the more serious and better
informed, the natural child of a cousin, a lady in Manila.

The captain of the steamer caught sight of the old priest and insisted
that he go to the upper deck, saying, “If you don’t do so, the friars
will think that you don’t want to associate with them.”

Padre Florentino had no recourse but to accept, so he summoned his
nephew in order to let him know where he was going, and to charge him
not to come near the upper deck while he was there. “If the captain
notices you, he’ll invite you also, and we should then be abusing his
kindness.”

“My uncle’s way!” thought Isagani. “All so that I won’t have any reason
for talking with Doña Victorina.”



CHAPTER III

LEGENDS

                                   Ich weiss nicht was soil es bedeuten
                                   Dass ich so traurig bin!


When Padre Florentino joined the group above, the bad humor provoked by
the previous discussion had entirely disappeared. Perhaps their spirits
had been raised by the attractive houses of the town of Pasig, or the
glasses of sherry they had drunk in preparation for the coming meal, or
the prospect of a good breakfast. Whatever the cause, the fact was that
they were all laughing and joking, even including the lean Franciscan,
although he made little noise and his smiles looked like death-grins.

“Evil times, evil times!” said Padre Sibyla with a laugh.

“Get out, don’t say that, Vice-Rector!” responded the Canon Irene,
giving the other’s chair a shove. “In Hongkong you’re doing a fine
business, putting up every building that—ha, ha!”

“Tut, tut!” was the reply; “you don’t see our expenses, and the tenants
on our estates are beginning to complain—”

“Here, enough of complaints, puñales, else I’ll fall to weeping!” cried
Padre Camorra gleefully. “We’re not complaining, and we haven’t either
estates or banking-houses. You know that my Indians are beginning to
haggle over the fees and to flash schedules on me! Just look how they
cite schedules to me now, and none other than those of the Archbishop
Basilio Sancho, [10] as if from his time up to now prices had not
risen. Ha, ha, ha! Why should a baptism cost less than a chicken? But I
play the deaf man, collect what I can, and never complain. We’re not
avaricious, are we, Padre Salvi?”

At that moment Simoun’s head appeared above the hatchway.

“Well, where’ve you been keeping yourself?” Don Custodio called to him,
having forgotten all about their dispute. “You’re missing the prettiest
part of the trip!”

“Pshaw!” retorted Simoun, as he ascended, “I’ve seen so many rivers and
landscapes that I’m only interested in those that call up legends.”

“As for legends, the Pasig has a few,” observed the captain, who did
not relish any depreciation of the river where he navigated and earned
his livelihood. “Here you have that of Malapad-na-bato, a rock sacred
before the coming of the Spaniards as the abode of spirits. Afterwards,
when the superstition had been dissipated and the rock profaned, it was
converted into a nest of tulisanes, since from its crest they easily
captured the luckless bankas, which had to contend against both the
currents and men. Later, in our time, in spite of human interference,
there are still told stories about wrecked bankas, and if on rounding
it I didn’t steer with my six senses, I’d be smashed against its sides.
Then you have another legend, that of Doña Jeronima’s cave, which Padre
Florentino can relate to you.”

“Everybody knows that,” remarked Padre Sibyla disdainfully.

But neither Simoun, nor Ben-Zayb, nor Padre Irene, nor Padre Camorra
knew it, so they begged for the story, some in jest and others from
genuine curiosity. The priest, adopting the tone of burlesque with
which some had made their request, began like an old tutor relating a
story to children.

“Once upon a time there was a student who had made a promise of
marriage to a young woman in his country, but it seems that he failed
to remember her. She waited for him faithfully year after year, her
youth passed, she grew into middle age, and then one day she heard a
report that her old sweetheart was the Archbishop of Manila. Disguising
herself as a man, she came round the Cape and presented herself before
his grace, demanding the fulfilment of his promise. What she asked was
of course impossible, so the Archbishop ordered the preparation of the
cave that you may have noticed with its entrance covered and decorated
with a curtain of vines. There she lived and died and there she is
buried. The legend states that Doña Jeronima was so fat that she had to
turn sidewise to get into it. Her fame as an enchantress sprung from
her custom of throwing into the river the silver dishes which she used
in the sumptuous banquets that were attended by crowds of gentlemen. A
net was spread under the water to hold the dishes and thus they were
cleaned. It hasn’t been twenty years since the river washed the very
entrance of the cave, but it has gradually been receding, just as the
memory of her is dying out among the people.”

“A beautiful legend!” exclaimed Ben-Zayb. “I’m going to write an
article about it. It’s sentimental!”

Doña Victorina thought of dwelling in such a cave and was about to say
so, when Simoun took the floor instead.

“But what’s your opinion about that, Padre Salvi?” he asked the
Franciscan, who seemed to be absorbed in thought. “Doesn’t it seem to
you as though his Grace, instead of giving her a cave, ought to have
placed her in a nunnery—in St. Clara’s, for example? What do you say?”

There was a start of surprise on Padre Sibyla’s part to notice that
Padre Salvi shuddered and looked askance at Simoun.

“Because it’s not a very gallant act,” continued Simoun quite
naturally, “to give a rocky cliff as a home to one with whose hopes we
have trifled. It’s hardly religious to expose her thus to temptation,
in a cave on the banks of a river—it smacks of nymphs and dryads. It
would have been more gallant, more pious, more romantic, more in
keeping with the customs of this country, to shut her up in St.
Clara’s, like a new Eloise, in order to visit and console her from time
to time.”

“I neither can nor should pass judgment upon the conduct of
archbishops,” replied the Franciscan sourly.

“But you, who are the ecclesiastical governor, acting in the place of
our Archbishop, what would you do if such a case should arise?”

Padre Salvi shrugged his shoulders and calmly responded, “It’s not
worth while thinking about what can’t happen. But speaking of legends,
don’t overlook the most beautiful, since it is the truest: that of the
miracle of St. Nicholas, the ruins of whose church you may have
noticed. I’m going to relate it to Señor Simoun, as he probably hasn’t
heard it. It seems that formerly the river, as well as the lake, was
infested with caymans, so huge and voracious that they attacked bankas
and upset them with a slap of the tail. Our chronicles relate that one
day an infidel Chinaman, who up to that time had refused to be
converted, was passing in front of the church, when suddenly the devil
presented himself to him in the form of a cayman and upset the banka,
in order to devour him and carry him off to hell. Inspired by God, the
Chinaman at that moment called upon St. Nicholas and instantly the
cayman was changed into a stone. The old people say that in their time
the monster could easily be recognized in the pieces of stone that were
left, and, for my part, I can assure you that I have clearly made out
the head, to judge from which the monster must have been enormously
large.”

“Marvelous, a marvelous legend!” exclaimed Ben-Zayb. “It’s good for an
article—the description of the monster, the terror of the Chinaman, the
waters of the river, the bamboo brakes. Also, it’ll do for a study of
comparative religions; because, look you, an infidel Chinaman in great
distress invoked exactly the saint that he must know only by hearsay
and in whom he did not believe. Here there’s no room for the proverb
that ‘a known evil is preferable to an unknown good.’ If I should find
myself in China and get caught in such a difficulty, I would invoke the
obscurest saint in the calendar before Confucius or Buddha. Whether
this is due to the manifest superiority of Catholicism or to the
inconsequential and illogical inconsistency in the brains of the yellow
race, a profound study of anthropology alone will be able to
elucidate.”

Ben-Zayb had adopted the tone of a lecturer and was describing circles
in the air with his forefinger, priding himself on his imagination,
which from the most insignificant facts could deduce so many
applications and inferences. But noticing that Simoun was preoccupied
and thinking that he was pondering over what he, Ben-Zayb, had just
said, he inquired what the jeweler was meditating about.

“About two very important questions,” answered Simoun; “two questions
that you might add to your article. First, what may have become of the
devil on seeing himself suddenly confined within a stone? Did he
escape? Did he stay there? Was he crushed? Second, if the petrified
animals that I have seen in various European museums may not have been
the victims of some antediluvian saint?”

The tone in which the jeweler spoke was so serious, while he rested his
forehead on the tip of his forefinger in an attitude of deep
meditation, that Padre Camorra responded very gravely, “Who knows, who
knows?”

“Since we’re busy with legends and are now entering the lake,” remarked
Padre Sibyla, “the captain must know many—”

At that moment the steamer crossed the bar and the panorama spread out
before their eyes was so truly magnificent that all were impressed. In
front extended the beautiful lake bordered by green shores and blue
mountains, like a huge mirror, framed in emeralds and sapphires,
reflecting the sky in its glass. On the right were spread out the low
shores, forming bays with graceful curves, and dim there in the
distance the crags of Sungay, while in the background rose Makiling,
imposing and majestic, crowned with fleecy clouds. On the left lay
Talim Island with its curious sweep of hills. A fresh breeze rippled
over the wide plain of water.

“By the way, captain,” said Ben-Zayb, turning around, “do you know in
what part of the lake a certain Guevara, Navarra, or Ibarra, was
killed?”

The group looked toward the captain, with the exception of Simoun, who
had turned away his head as though to look for something on the shore.

“Ah, yes!” exclaimed Doña Victorina. “Where, captain? Did he leave any
tracks in the water?”

The good captain winked several times, an indication that he was
annoyed, but reading the request in the eyes of all, took a few steps
toward the bow and scanned the shore.

“Look over there,” he said in a scarcely audible voice, after making
sure that no strangers were near. “According to the officer who
conducted the pursuit, Ibarra, upon finding himself surrounded, jumped
out of his banka there near the Kinabutasan [11] and, swimming under
water, covered all that distance of more than two miles, saluted by
bullets every time that he raised his head to breathe. Over yonder is
where they lost track of him, and a little farther on near the shore
they discovered something like the color of blood. And now I think of
it, it’s just thirteen years, day for day, since this happened.”

“So that his corpse—” began Ben-Zayb.

“Went to join his father’s,” replied Padre Sibyla. “Wasn’t he also
another filibuster, Padre Salvi?”

“That’s what might be called cheap funerals, Padre Camorra, eh?”
remarked Ben-Zayb.

“I’ve always said that those who won’t pay for expensive funerals are
filibusters,” rejoined the person addressed, with a merry laugh.

“But what’s the matter with you, Señor Simoun?” inquired Ben-Zayb,
seeing that the jeweler was motionless and thoughtful. “Are you
seasick—an old traveler like you? On such a drop of water as this!”

“I want to tell you,” broke in the captain, who had come to hold all
those places in great affection, “that you can’t call this a drop of
water. It’s larger than any lake in Switzerland and all those in Spain
put together. I’ve seen old sailors who got seasick here.”



CHAPTER IV

CABESANG TALES


Those who have read the first part of this story will perhaps remember
an old wood-cutter who lived in the depths of the forest. [12] Tandang
Selo is still alive, and though his hair has turned completely white,
he yet preserves his good health. He no longer hunts or cuts firewood,
for his fortunes have improved and he works only at making brooms.

His son Tales (abbreviation of Telesforo) had worked at first on shares
on the lands of a capitalist, but later, having become the owner of two
carabaos and several hundred pesos, determined to work on his own
account, aided by his father, his wife, and his three children. So they
cut down and cleared away some thick woods which were situated on the
borders of the town and which they believed belonged to no one. During
the labors of cleaning and cultivating the new land, the whole family
fell ill with malaria and the mother died, along with the eldest
daughter, Lucia, in the flower of her age. This, which was the natural
consequence of breaking up new soil infested with various kinds of
bacteria, they attributed to the anger of the woodland spirit, so they
were resigned and went on with their labor, believing him pacified.

But when they began to harvest their first crop a religious
corporation, which owned land in the neighboring town, laid claim to
the fields, alleging that they fell within their boundaries, and to
prove it they at once started to set up their marks. However, the
administrator of the religious order left to them, for humanity’s sake,
the usufruct of the land on condition that they pay a small sum
annually—a mere bagatelle, twenty or thirty pesos. Tales, as peaceful a
man as could be found, was as much opposed to lawsuits as any one and
more submissive to the friars than most people; so, in order not to
smash a palyok against a kawali (as he said, for to him the friars were
iron pots and he a clay jar), he had the weakness to yield to their
claim, remembering that he did not know Spanish and had no money to pay
lawyers.

Besides, Tandang Selo said to him, “Patience! You would spend more in
one year of litigation than in ten years of paying what the white
padres demand. And perhaps they’ll pay you back in masses! Pretend that
those thirty pesos had been lost in gambling or had fallen into the
water and been swallowed by a cayman.”

The harvest was abundant and sold well, so Tales planned to build a
wooden house in the barrio of Sagpang, of the town of Tiani, which
adjoined San Diego.

Another year passed, bringing another good crop, and for this reason
the friars raised the rent to fifty pesos, which Tales paid in order
not to quarrel and because he expected to sell his sugar at a good
price.

“Patience! Pretend that the cayman has grown some,” old Selo consoled
him.

That year he at last saw his dream realized: to live in the barrio of
Sagpang in a wooden house. The father and grandfather then thought of
providing some education for the two children, especially the daughter
Juliana, or Juli, as they called her, for she gave promise of being
accomplished and beautiful. A boy who was a friend of the family,
Basilio, was studying in Manila, and he was of as lowly origin as they.

But this dream seemed destined not to be realized. The first care the
community took when they saw the family prospering was to appoint as
cabeza de barangay its most industrious member, which left only Tano,
the son, who was only fourteen years old. The father was therefore
called Cabesang Tales and had to order a sack coat, buy a felt hat, and
prepare to spend his money. In order to avoid any quarrel with the
curate or the government, he settled from his own pocket the shortages
in the tax-lists, paying for those who had died or moved away, and he
lost considerable time in making the collections and on his trips to
the capital.

“Patience! Pretend that the cayman’s relatives have joined him,”
advised Tandang Selo, smiling placidly.

“Next year you’ll put on a long skirt and go to Manila to study like
the young ladies of the town,” Cabesang Tales told his daughter every
time he heard her talking of Basilio’s progress.

But that next year did not come, and in its stead there was another
increase in the rent. Cabesang Tales became serious and scratched his
head. The clay jar was giving up all its rice to the iron pot.

When the rent had risen to two hundred pesos, Tales was not content
with scratching his head and sighing; he murmured and protested. The
friar-administrator then told him that if he could not pay, some one
else would be assigned to cultivate that land—many who desired it had
offered themselves.

He thought at first that the friar was joking, but the friar was
talking seriously, and indicated a servant of his to take possession of
the land. Poor Tales turned pale, he felt a buzzing in his ears, he saw
in the red mist that rose before his eyes his wife and daughter,
pallid, emaciated, dying, victims of the intermittent fevers—then he
saw the thick forest converted into productive fields, he saw the
stream of sweat watering its furrows, he saw himself plowing under the
hot sun, bruising his feet against the stones and roots, while this
friar had been driving about in his carriage with the wretch who was to
get the land following like a slave behind his master. No, a thousand
times, no! First let the fields sink into the depths of the earth and
bury them all! Who was this intruder that he should have any right to
his land? Had he brought from his own country a single handful of that
soil? Had he crooked a single one of his fingers to pull up the roots
that ran through it?

Exasperated by the threats of the friar, who tried to uphold his
authority at any cost in the presence of the other tenants, Cabesang
Tales rebelled and refused to pay a single cuarto, having ever before
himself that red mist, saying that he would give up his fields to the
first man who could irrigate it with blood drawn from his own veins.

Old Selo, on looking at his son’s face, did not dare to mention the
cayman, but tried to calm him by talking of clay jars, reminding him
that the winner in a lawsuit was left without a shirt to his back.

“We shall all be turned to clay, father, and without shirts we were
born,” was the reply.

So he resolutely refused to pay or to give up a single span of his land
unless the friars should first prove the legality of their claim by
exhibiting a title-deed of some kind. As they had none, a lawsuit
followed, and Cabesang Tales entered into it, confiding that some at
least, if not all, were lovers of justice and respecters of the law.

“I serve and have been serving the King with my money and my services,”
he said to those who remonstrated with him. “I’m asking for justice and
he is obliged to give it to me.”

Drawn on by fatality, and as if he had put into play in the lawsuit the
whole future of himself and his children, he went on spending his
savings to pay lawyers, notaries, and solicitors, not to mention the
officials and clerks who exploited his ignorance and his needs. He
moved to and fro between the village and the capital, passed his days
without eating and his nights without sleeping, while his talk was
always about briefs, exhibits, and appeals. There was then seen a
struggle such as was never before carried on under the skies of the
Philippines: that of a poor Indian, ignorant and friendless, confiding
in the justness and righteousness of his cause, fighting against a
powerful corporation before which Justice bowed her head, while the
judges let fall the scales and surrendered the sword. He fought as
tenaciously as the ant which bites when it knows that it is going to be
crushed, as does the fly which looks into space only through a pane of
glass. Yet the clay jar defying the iron pot and smashing itself into a
thousand pieces bad in it something impressive—it had the sublimeness
of desperation!

On the days when his journeys left him free he patrolled his fields
armed with a shotgun, saying that the tulisanes were hovering around
and he had need of defending himself in order not to fall into their
hands and thus lose his lawsuit. As if to improve his marksmanship, he
shot at birds and fruits, even the butterflies, with such accurate aim
that the friar-administrator did not dare to go to Sagpang without an
escort of civil-guards, while the friar’s hireling, who gazed from afar
at the threatening figure of Tales wandering over the fields like a
sentinel upon the walls, was terror stricken and refused to take the
property away from him.

But the local judges and those at the capital, warned by the experience
of one of their number who had been summarily dismissed, dared not give
him the decision, fearing their own dismissal. Yet they were not really
bad men, those judges, they were upright and conscientious, good
citizens, excellent fathers, dutiful sons—and they were able to
appreciate poor Tales’ situation better than Tales himself could. Many
of them were versed in the scientific and historical basis of property,
they knew that the friars by their own statutes could not own property,
but they also knew that to come from far across the sea with an
appointment secured with great difficulty, to undertake the duties of
the position with the best intentions, and now to lose it because an
Indian fancied that justice had to be done on earth as in heaven—that
surely was an idea! They had their families and greater needs surely
than that Indian: one had a mother to provide for, and what duty is
more sacred than that of caring for a mother? Another had sisters, all
of marriageable age; that other there had many little children who
expected their daily bread and who, like fledglings in a nest, would
surely die of hunger the day he was out of a job; even the very least
of them had there, far away, a wife who would be in distress if the
monthly remittance failed. All these moral and conscientious judges
tried everything in their power in the way of counsel, advising
Cabesang Tales to pay the rent demanded. But Tales, like all simple
souls, once he had seen what was just, went straight toward it. He
demanded proofs, documents, papers, title-deeds, but the friars had
none of these, resting their case on his concessions in the past.

Cabesang Tales’ constant reply was: “If every day I give alms to a
beggar to escape annoyance, who will oblige me to continue my gifts if
he abuses my generosity?”

From this stand no one could draw him, nor were there any threats that
could intimidate him. In vain Governor M—— made a trip expressly to
talk to him and frighten him. His reply to it all was: “You may do what
you like, Mr. Governor, I’m ignorant and powerless. But I’ve cultivated
those fields, my wife and daughter died while helping me clear them,
and I won’t give them up to any one but him who can do more with them
than I’ve done. Let him first irrigate them with his blood and bury in
them his wife and daughter!”

The upshot of this obstinacy was that the honorable judges gave the
decision to the friars, and everybody laughed at him, saying that
lawsuits are not won by justice. But Cabesang Tales appealed, loaded
his shotgun, and patrolled his fields with deliberation.

During this period his life seemed to be a wild dream. His son, Tano, a
youth as tall as his father and as good as his sister, was conscripted,
but he let the boy go rather than purchase a substitute.

“I have to pay the lawyers,” he told his weeping daughter. “If I win
the case I’ll find a way to get him back, and if I lose it I won’t have
any need for sons.”

So the son went away and nothing more was heard of him except that his
hair had been cropped and that he slept under a cart. Six months later
it was rumored that he had been seen embarking for the Carolines;
another report was that he had been seen in the uniform of the Civil
Guard.

“Tano in the Civil Guard! ’Susmariosep!” exclaimed several, clasping
their hands. “Tano, who was so good and so honest! Requimternam!”

The grandfather went many days without speaking to the father, Juli
fell sick, but Cabesang Tales did not shed a single tear, although for
two days he never left the house, as if he feared the looks of reproach
from the whole village or that he would be called the executioner of
his son. But on the third day he again sallied forth with his shotgun.

Murderous intentions were attributed to him, and there were
well-meaning persons who whispered about that he had been heard to
threaten that he would bury the friar-administrator in the furrows of
his fields, whereat the friar was frightened at him in earnest. As a
result of this, there came a decree from the Captain-General forbidding
the use of firearms and ordering that they be taken up. Cabesang Tales
had to hand over his shotgun but he continued his rounds armed with a
long bolo.

“What are you going to do with that bolo when the tulisanes have
firearms?” old Selo asked him.

“I must watch my crops,” was the answer. “Every stalk of cane growing
there is one of my wife’s bones.”

The bolo was taken up on the pretext that it was too long. He then took
his father’s old ax and with it on his shoulder continued his sullen
rounds.

Every time he left the house Tandang Selo and Juli trembled for his
life. The latter would get up from her loom, go to the window, pray,
make vows to the saints, and recite novenas. The grandfather was at
times unable to finish the handle of a broom and talked of returning to
the forest—life in that house was unbearable.

At last their fears were realized. As the fields were some distance
from the village, Cabesang Tales, in spite of his ax, fell into the
hands of tulisanes who had revolvers and rifles. They told him that
since he had money to pay judges and lawyers he must have some also for
the outcasts and the hunted. They therefore demanded a ransom of five
hundred pesos through the medium of a rustic, with the warning that if
anything happened to their messenger, the captive would pay for it with
his life. Two days of grace were allowed.

This news threw the poor family into the wildest terror, which was
augmented when they learned that the Civil Guard was going out in
pursuit of the bandits. In case of an encounter, the first victim would
be the captive—this they all knew. The old man was paralyzed, while the
pale and frightened daughter tried often to talk but could not. Still,
another thought more terrible, an idea more cruel, roused them from
their stupor. The rustic sent by the tulisanes said that the band would
probably have to move on, and if they were slow in sending the ransom
the two days would elapse and Cabesang Tales would have his throat cut.

This drove those two beings to madness, weak and powerless as they
were. Tandang Selo got up, sat down, went outside, came back again,
knowing not where to go, where to seek aid. Juli appealed to her
images, counted and recounted her money, but her two hundred pesos did
not increase or multiply. Soon she dressed herself, gathered together
all her jewels, and asked the advice of her grandfather, if she should
go to see the gobernadorcillo, the judge, the notary, the lieutenant of
the Civil Guard. The old man said yes to everything, or when she said
no, he too said no. At length came the neighbors, their relatives and
friends, some poorer than others, in their simplicity magnifying the
fears. The most active of all was Sister Bali, a great panguinguera,
who had been to Manila to practise religious exercises in the nunnery
of the Sodality.

Juli was willing to sell all her jewels, except a locket set with
diamonds and emeralds which Basilio had given her, for this locket had
a history: a nun, the daughter of Capitan Tiago, had given it to a
leper, who, in return for professional treatment, had made a present of
it to Basilio. So she could not sell it without first consulting him.

Quickly the shell-combs and earrings were sold, as well as Juli’s
rosary, to their richest neighbor, and thus fifty pesos were added, but
two hundred and fifty were still lacking. The locket might be pawned,
but Juli shook her head. A neighbor suggested that the house be sold
and Tandang Selo approved the idea, satisfied to return to the forest
and cut firewood as of old, but Sister Bali observed that this could
not be done because the owner was not present.

“The judge’s wife once sold me her tapis for a peso, but her husband
said that the sale did not hold because it hadn’t received his
approval. Abá! He took back the tapis and she hasn’t returned the peso
yet, but I don’t pay her when she wins at panguingui, abá! In that way
I’ve collected twelve cuartos, and for that alone I’m going to play
with her. I can’t bear to have people fail to pay what they owe me,
abá!”

Another neighbor was going to ask Sister Bali why then did not she
settle a little account with her, but the quick panguinguera suspected
this and added at once: “Do you know, Juli, what you can do? Borrow two
hundred and fifty pesos on the house, payable when the lawsuit is won.”

This seemed to be the best proposition, so they decided to act upon it
that same day. Sister Bali offered to accompany her, and together they
visited the houses of all the rich folks in Tiani, but no one would
accept the proposal. The case, they said, was already lost, and to show
favors to an enemy of the friars was to expose themselves to their
vengeance. At last a pious woman took pity on the girl and lent the
money on condition that Juli should remain with her as a servant until
the debt was paid. Juli would not have so very much to do: sew, pray,
accompany her to mass, and fast for her now and then. The girl accepted
with tears in her eyes, received the money, and promised to enter her
service on the following day, Christmas.

When the grandfather heard of that sale he fell to weeping like a
child. What, that granddaughter whom he had not allowed to walk in the
sun lest her skin should be burned, Juli, she of the delicate fingers
and rosy feet! What, that girl, the prettiest in the village and
perhaps in the whole town, before whose window many gallants had vainly
passed the night playing and singing! What, his only granddaughter, the
sole joy of his fading eyes, she whom he had dreamed of seeing dressed
in a long skirt, talking Spanish, and holding herself erect waving a
painted fan like the daughters of the wealthy—she to become a servant,
to be scolded and reprimanded, to ruin her fingers, to sleep anywhere,
to rise in any manner whatsoever!

So the old grandfather wept and talked of hanging or starving himself
to death. “If you go,” he declared, “I’m going back to the forest and
will never set foot in the town.”

Juli soothed him by saying that it was necessary for her father to
return, that the suit would be won, and they could then ransom her from
her servitude.

The night was a sad one. Neither of the two could taste a bite and the
old man refused to lie down, passing the whole night seated in a
corner, silent and motionless. Juli on her part tried to sleep, but for
a long time could not close her eyes. Somewhat relieved about her
father’s fate, she now thought of herself and fell to weeping, but
stifled her sobs so that the old man might not hear them. The next day
she would be a servant, and it was the very day Basilio was accustomed
to come from Manila with presents for her. Henceforward she would have
to give up that love; Basilio, who was going to be a doctor, couldn’t
marry a pauper. In fancy she saw him going to the church in company
with the prettiest and richest girl in the town, both well-dressed,
happy and smiling, while she, Juli, followed her mistress, carrying
novenas, buyos, and the cuspidor. Here the girl felt a lump rise in her
throat, a sinking at her heart, and begged the Virgin to let her die
first.

But—said her conscience—he will at least know that I preferred to pawn
myself rather than the locket he gave me.

This thought consoled her a little and brought on empty dreams. Who
knows but that a miracle might happen? She might find the two hundred
and fifty pesos under the image of the Virgin—she had read of many
similar miracles. The sun might not rise nor morning come, and
meanwhile the suit would be won. Her father might return, or Basilio
put in his appearance, she might find a bag of gold in the garden, the
tulisanes would send the bag of gold, the curate, Padre Camorra, who
was always teasing her, would come with the tulisanes. So her ideas
became more and more confused, until at length, worn out by fatigue and
sorrow, she went to sleep with dreams of her childhood in the depths of
the forest: she was bathing in the torrent along with her two brothers,
there were little fishes of all colors that let themselves be caught
like fools, and she became impatient because she found no pleasure in
catchnig such foolish little fishes! Basilio was under the water, but
Basilio for some reason had the face of her brother Tano. Her new
mistress was watching them from the bank.



CHAPTER V

A COCHERO’S CHRISTMAS EVE


Basilio reached San Diego just as the Christmas Eve procession was
passing through the streets. He had been delayed on the road for
several hours because the cochero, having forgotten his cedula, was
held up by the Civil Guard, had his memory jogged by a few blows from a
rifle-butt, and afterwards was taken before the commandant. Now the
carromata was again detained to let the procession pass, while the
abused cochero took off his hat reverently and recited a paternoster to
the first image that came along, which seemed to be that of a great
saint. It was the figure of an old man with an exceptionally long
beard, seated at the edge of a grave under a tree filled with all kinds
of stuffed birds. A kalan with a clay jar, a mortar, and a kalikut for
mashing buyo were his only utensils, as if to indicate that he lived on
the border of the tomb and was doing his cooking there. This was the
Methuselah of the religious iconography of the Philippines; his
colleague and perhaps contemporary is called in Europe Santa Claus, and
is still more smiling and agreeable.

“In the time of the saints,” thought the cochero, “surely there were no
civil-guards, because one can’t live long on blows from rifle-butts.”

Behind the great old man came the three Magian Kings on ponies that
were capering about, especially that of the negro Melchior, which
seemed to be about to trample its companions.

“No, there couldn’t have been any civil-guards,” decided the cochero,
secretly envying those fortunate times, “because if there had been,
that negro who is cutting up such capers beside those two
Spaniards”—Gaspar and Balthazar—“would have gone to jail.”

Then, observing that the negro wore a crown and was a king, like the
other two, the Spaniards, his thoughts naturally turned to the king of
the Indians, and he sighed. “Do you know, sir,” he asked Basilio
respectfully, “if his right foot is loose yet?”

Basilio had him repeat the question. “Whose right foot?”

“The King’s!” whispered the cochero mysteriously.

“What King’s?”

“Our King’s, the King of the Indians.”

Basilio smiled and shrugged his shoulders, while the cochero again
sighed. The Indians in the country places preserve the legend that
their king, imprisoned and chained in the cave of San Mateo, will come
some day to free them. Every hundredth year he breaks one of his
chains, so that he now has his hands and his left foot loose—only the
right foot remains bound. This king causes the earthquakes when he
struggles or stirs himself, and he is so strong that in shaking hands
with him it is necessary to extend to him a bone, which he crushes in
his grasp. For some unexplainable reason the Indians call him King
Bernardo, perhaps by confusing him with Bernardo del Carpio. [13]

“When he gets his right foot loose,” muttered the cochero, stifling
another sigh, “I’ll give him my horses, and offer him my services even
to death, for he’ll free us from the Civil Guard.” With a melancholy
gaze he watched the Three Kings move on.

The boys came behind in two files, sad and serious as though they were
there under compulsion. They lighted their way, some with torches,
others with tapers, and others with paper lanterns on bamboo poles,
while they recited the rosary at the top of their voices, as though
quarreling with somebody. Afterwards came St. Joseph on a modest float,
with a look of sadness and resignation on his face, carrying his stalk
of lilies, as he moved along between two civil-guards as though he were
a prisoner. This enabled the cochero to understand the expression on
the saint’s face, but whether the sight of the guards troubled him or
he had no great respect for a saint who would travel in such company,
he did not recite a single requiem.

Behind St. Joseph came the girls bearing lights, their heads covered
with handkerchiefs knotted under their chins, also reciting the rosary,
but with less wrath than the boys. In their midst were to be seen
several lads dragging along little rabbits made of Japanese paper,
lighted by red candles, with their short paper tails erect. The lads
brought those toys into the procession to enliven the birth of the
Messiah. The little animals, fat and round as eggs, seemed to be so
pleased that at times they would take a leap, lose their balance, fall,
and catch fire. The owner would then hasten to extinguish such burning
enthusiasm, puffing and blowing until he finally beat out the fire, and
then, seeing his toy destroyed, would fall to weeping. The cochero
observed with sadness that the race of little paper animals disappeared
each year, as if they had been attacked by the pest like the living
animals. He, the abused Sinong, remembered his two magnificent horses,
which, at the advice of the curate, he had caused to be blessed to save
them from plague, spending therefor ten pesos—for neither the
government nor the curates have found any better remedy for the
epizootic—and they had died after all. Yet he consoled himself by
remembering also that after the shower of holy water, the Latin phrases
of the padre, and the ceremonies, the horses had become so vain and
self-important that they would not even allow him, Sinong, a good
Christian, to put them in harness, and he had not dared to whip them,
because a tertiary sister had said that they were sanctified.

The procession was closed by the Virgin dressed as the Divine Shepherd,
with a pilgrim’s hat of wide brim and long plumes to indicate the
journey to Jerusalem. That the birth might be made more explicable, the
curate had ordered her figure to be stuffed with rags and cotton under
her skirt, so that no one could be in any doubt as to her condition. It
was a very beautiful image, with the same sad expression of all the
images that the Filipinos make, and a mien somewhat ashamed, doubtless
at the way in which the curate had arranged her. In front came several
singers and behind, some musicians with the usual civil-guards. The
curate, as was to be expected after what he had done, was not in his
place, for that year he was greatly displeased at having to use all his
diplomacy and shrewdness to convince the townspeople that they should
pay thirty pesos for each Christmas mass instead of the usual twenty.
“You’re turning filibusters!” he had said to them.

The cochero must have been greatly preoccupied with the sights of the
procession, for when it had passed and Basilio ordered him to go on, he
did not notice that the lamp on his carromata had gone out. Neither did
Basilio notice it, his attention being devoted to gazing at the houses,
which were illuminated inside and out with little paper lanterns of
fantastic shapes and colors, stars surrounded by hoops with long
streamers which produced a pleasant murmur when shaken by the wind, and
fishes of movable heads and tails, having a glass of oil inside,
suspended from the eaves of the windows in the delightful fashion of a
happy and homelike fiesta. But he also noticed that the lights were
flickering, that the stars were being eclipsed, that this year had
fewer ornaments and hangings than the former, which in turn had had
even fewer than the year preceding it. There was scarcely any music in
the streets, while the agreeable noises of the kitchen were not to be
heard in all the houses, which the youth ascribed to the fact that for
some time things had been going badly, the sugar did not bring a good
price, the rice crops had failed, over half the live stock had died,
but the taxes rose and increased for some inexplicable reason, while
the abuses of the Civil Guard became more frequent to kill off the
happiness of the people in the towns.

He was just pondering over this when an energetic “Halt!” resounded.
They were passing in front of the barracks and one of the guards had
noticed the extinguished lamp of the carromata, which could not go on
without it. A hail of insults fell about the poor cochero, who vainly
excused himself with the length of the procession. He would be arrested
for violating the ordinances and afterwards advertised in the
newspapers, so the peaceful and prudent Basilio left the carromata and
went his way on foot, carrying his valise. This was San Diego, his
native town, where he had not a single relative.

The only, house wherein there seemed to be any mirth was Capitan
Basilio’s. Hens and chickens cackled their death chant to the
accompaniment of dry and repeated strokes, as of meat pounded on a
chopping-block, and the sizzling of grease in the frying-pans. A feast
was going on in the house, and even into the street there passed a
certain draught of air, saturated with the succulent odors of stews and
confections. In the entresol Basilio saw Sinang, as small as when our
readers knew her before, [14] although a little rounder and plumper
since her marriage. Then to his great surprise he made out, further in
at the back of the room, chatting with Capitan Basilio, the curate, and
the alferez of the Civil Guard, no less than the jeweler Simoun, as
ever with his blue goggles and his nonchalant air.

“It’s understood, Señor Simoun,” Capitan Basilio was saying, “that
we’ll go to Tiani to see your jewels.”

“I would also go,” remarked the alferez, “because I need a watch-chain,
but I’m so busy—if Capitan Basilio would undertake—”

Capitan Basilio would do so with the greatest pleasure, and as he
wished to propitiate the soldier in order that he might not be molested
in the persons of his laborers, he refused to accept the money which
the alferez was trying to get out of his pocket.

“It’s my Christmas gift!”

“I can’t allow you, Capitan, I can’t permit it!”

“All right! We’ll settle up afterwards,” replied Capitan Basilio with a
lordly gesture.

Also, the curate wanted a pair of lady’s earrings and requested the
capitan to buy them for him. “I want them first class. Later we’ll fix
up the account.”

“Don’t worry about that, Padre,” said the good man, who wished to be at
peace with the Church also. An unfavorable report on the curate’s part
could do him great damage and cause him double the expense, for those
earrings were a forced present. Simoun in the meantime was praising his
jewels.

“That fellow is fierce!” mused the student. “He does business
everywhere. And if I can believe a certain person, he buys from some
gentlemen for a half of their value the same jewels that he himself has
sold for presents. Everybody in this country prospers but us!”

He made his way to his house, or rather Capitan Tiago’s, now occupied
by a trustworthy man who had held him in great esteem since the day
when he had seen him perform a surgical operation with the same
coolness that he would cut up a chicken. This man was now waiting to
give him the news. Two of the laborers were prisoners, one was to be
deported, and a number of carabaos had died.

“The same old story,” exclaimed Basilio, in a bad humor. “You always
receive me with the same complaints.” The youth was not overbearing,
but as he was at times scolded by Capitan Tiago, he liked in his turn
to chide those under his orders.

The old man cast about for something new. “One of our tenants has died,
the old fellow who took care of the woods, and the curate refused to
bury him as a pauper, saying that his master is a rich man.”

“What did he die of?”

“Of old age.”

“Get out! To die of old age! It must at least have been some disease.”
Basilio in his zeal for making autopsies wanted diseases.

“Haven’t you anything new to tell me? You take away my appetite
relating the same old things. Do you know anything of Sagpang?”

The old man then told him about the kidnapping of Cabesang Tales.
Basilio became thoughtful and said nothing more—his appetite had
completely left him.



CHAPTER VI

BASILIO


When the bells began their chimes for the midnight mass and those who
preferred a good sleep to fiestas and ceremonies arose grumbling at the
noise and movement, Basilio cautiously left the house, took two or
three turns through the streets to see that he was not watched or
followed, and then made his way by unfrequented paths to the road that
led to the ancient wood of the Ibarras, which had been acquired by
Capitan Tiago when their property was confiscated and sold. As
Christmas fell under the waning moon that year, the place was wrapped
in darkness. The chimes had ceased, and only the tolling sounded
through the darkness of the night amid the murmur of the breeze-stirred
branches and the measured roar of the waves on the neighboring lake,
like the deep respiration of nature sunk in profound sleep.

Awed by the time and place, the youth moved along with his head down,
as if endeavoring to see through the darkness. But from time to time he
raised it to gaze at the stars through the open spaces between the
treetops and went forward parting the bushes or tearing away the lianas
that obstructed his path. At times he retraced his steps, his foot
would get caught among the plants, he stumbled over a projecting root
or a fallen log. At the end of a half-hour he reached a small brook on
the opposite side of which arose a hillock, a black and shapeless mass
that in the darkness took on the proportions of a mountain. Basilio
crossed the brook on the stones that showed black against the shining
surface of the water, ascended the hill, and made his way to a small
space enclosed by old and crumbling walls. He approached the balete
tree that rose in the center, huge, mysterious, venerable, formed of
roots that extended up and down among the confusedly-interlaced trunks.

Pausing before a heap of stones he took off his hat and seemed to be
praying. There his mother was buried, and every time he came to the
town his first visit was to that neglected and unknown grave. Since he
must visit Cabesang Tales’ family the next day, he had taken advantage
of the night to perform this duty. Seated on a stone, he seemed to fall
into deep thought. His past rose before him like a long black film,
rosy at first, then shadowy with spots of blood, then black, black,
gray, and then light, ever lighter. The end could not be seen, hidden
as it was by a cloud through which shone lights and the hues of dawn.

Thirteen years before to the day, almost to the hour, his mother had
died there in the deepest distress, on a glorious night when the moon
shone brightly and the Christians of the world were engaged in
rejoicing. Wounded and limping, he had reached there in pursuit of
her—she mad and terrified, fleeing from her son as from a ghost. There
she had died, and there had come a stranger who had commanded him to
build a funeral pyre. He had obeyed mechanically and when he returned
he found a second stranger by the side of the other’s corpse. What a
night and what a morning those were! The stranger helped him raise the
pyre, whereon they burned the corpse of the first, dug the grave in
which they buried his mother, and then after giving him some pieces of
money told him to leave the place. It was the first time that he had
seen that man—tall, with blood-shot eyes, pale lips, and a sharp nose.

Entirely alone in the world, without parents or brothers and sisters,
he left the town whose authorities inspired in him such great fear and
went to Manila to work in some rich house and study at the same time,
as many do. His journey was an Odyssey of sleeplessness and startling
surprises, in which hunger counted for little, for he ate the fruits in
the woods, whither he retreated whenever he made out from afar the
uniform of the Civil Guard, a sight that recalled the origin of all his
misfortunes. Once in Manila, ragged and sick, he went from door to door
offering his services. A boy from the provinces who knew not a single
word of Spanish, and sickly besides! Discouraged, hungry, and
miserable, he wandered about the streets, attracting attention by the
wretchedness of his clothing. How often was he tempted to throw himself
under the feet of the horses that flashed by, drawing carriages shining
with silver and varnish, thus to end his misery at once! Fortunately,
he saw Capitan Tiago, accompanied by Aunt Isabel. He had known them
since the days in San Diego, and in his joy believed that in them he
saw almost fellow-townsfolk. He followed the carriage until he lost
sight of it, and then made inquiries for the house. As it was the very
day that Maria Clara entered the nunnery and Capitan Tiago was
accordingly depressed, he was admitted as a servant, without pay, but
instead with leave to study, if he so wished, in San Juan de Letran.
[15]

Dirty, poorly dressed, with only a pair of clogs for footwear, at the
end of several months’ stay in Manila, he entered the first year of
Latin. On seeing his clothes, his classmates drew away from him, and
the professor, a handsome Dominican, never asked him a question, but
frowned every time he looked at him. In the eight months that the class
continued, the only words that passed between them were his name read
from the roll and the daily adsum with which the student responded.
With what bitterness he left the class each day, and, guessing the
reason for the treatment accorded him, what tears sprang into his eyes
and what complaints were stifled in his heart! How he had wept and
sobbed over the grave of his mother, relating to her his hidden
sorrows, humiliations, and affronts, when at the approach of Christmas
Capitan Tiago had taken him back to San Diego! Yet he memorized the
lessons without omitting a comma, although he understood scarcely any
part of them. But at length he became resigned, noticing that among the
three or four hundred in his class only about forty merited the honor
of being questioned, because they attracted the professor’s attention
by their appearance, some prank, comicality, or other cause. The
greater part of the students congratulated themselves that they thus
escaped the work of thinking and understanding the subject. “One goes
to college, not to learn and study, but to gain credit for the course,
so if the book can be memorized, what more can be asked—the year is
thus gained.” [16]

Basilio passed the examinations by answering the solitary question
asked him, like a machine, without stopping or breathing, and in the
amusement of the examiners won the passing certificate. His nine
companions—they were examined in batches of ten in order to save
time—did not have such good luck, but were condemned to repeat the year
of brutalization.

In the second year the game-cock that he tended won a large sum and he
received from Capitan Tiago a big tip, which he immediately invested in
the purchase of shoes and a felt hat. With these and the clothes given
him by his employer, which he made over to fit his person, his
appearance became more decent, but did not get beyond that. In such a
large class a great deal was needed to attract the professor’s
attention, and the student who in the first year did not make himself
known by some special quality, or did not capture the good-will of the
professors, could with difficulty make himself known in the rest of his
school-days. But Basilio kept on, for perseverance was his chief trait.

His fortune seemed to change somewhat when he entered the third year.
His professor happened to be a very jolly fellow, fond of jokes and of
making the students laugh, complacent enough in that he almost always
had his favorites recite the lessons—in fact, he was satisfied with
anything. At this time Basilio now wore shoes and a clean and
well-ironed camisa. As his professor noticed that he laughed very
little at the jokes and that his large eyes seemed to be asking
something like an eternal question, he took him for a fool, and one day
decided to make him conspicuous by calling on him for the lesson.
Basilio recited it from beginning to end, without hesitating over a
single letter, so the professor called him a parrot and told a story to
make the class laugh. Then to increase the hilarity and justify the
epithet he asked several questions, at the same time winking to his
favorites, as if to say to them, “You’ll see how we’re going to amuse
ourselves.”

Basilio now understood Spanish and answered the questions with the
plain intention of making no one laugh. This disgusted everybody, the
expected absurdity did not materialize, no one could laugh, and the
good friar never pardoned him for having defrauded the hopes of the
class and disappointed his own prophecies. But who would expect
anything worth while to come from a head so badly combed and placed on
an Indian poorly shod, classified until recently among the arboreal
animals? As in other centers of learning, where the teachers are
honestly desirous that the students should learn, such discoveries
usually delight the instructors, so in a college managed by men
convinced that for the most part knowledge is an evil, at least for the
students, the episode of Basilio produced a bad impression and he was
not questioned again during the year. Why should he be, when he made no
one laugh?

Quite discouraged and thinking of abandoning his studies, he passed to
the fourth year of Latin. Why study at all, why not sleep like the
others and trust to luck?

One of the two professors was very popular, beloved by all, passing for
a sage, a great poet, and a man of advanced ideas. One day when he
accompanied the collegians on their walk, he had a dispute with some
cadets, which resulted in a skirmish and a challenge. No doubt
recalling his brilliant youth, the professor preached a crusade and
promised good marks to all who during the promenade on the following
Sunday would take part in the fray. The week was a lively one—there
were occasional encounters in which canes and sabers were crossed, and
in one of these Basilio distinguished himself. Borne in triumph by the
students and presented to the professor, he thus became known to him
and came to be his favorite. Partly for this reason and partly from his
diligence, that year he received the highest marks, medals included, in
view of which Capitan Tiago, who, since his daughter had become a nun,
exhibited some aversion to the friars, in a fit of good humor induced
him to transfer to the Ateneo Municipal, the fame of which was then in
its apogee.

Here a new world opened before his eyes—a system of instruction that he
had never dreamed of. Except for a few superfluities and some childish
things, he was filled with admiration for the methods there used and
with gratitude for the zeal of the instructors. His eyes at times
filled with tears when he thought of the four previous years during
which, from lack of means, he had been unable to study at that center.
He had to make extraordinary efforts to get himself to the level of
those who had had a good preparatory course, and it might be said that
in that one year he learned the whole five of the secondary curricula.
He received his bachelor’s degree, to the great satisfaction of his
instructors, who in the examinations showed themselves to be proud of
him before the Dominican examiners sent there to inspect the school.
One of these, as if to dampen such great enthusiasm a little, asked him
where he had studied the first years of Latin.

“In San Juan de Letran, Padre,” answered Basilio.

“Aha! Of course! He’s not bad,—in Latin,” the Dominican then remarked
with a slight smile.

From choice and temperament he selected the course in medicine. Capitan
Tiago preferred the law, in order that he might have a lawyer free, but
knowledge of the laws is not sufficient to secure clientage in the
Philippines—it is necessary to win the cases, and for this friendships
are required, influence in certain spheres, a good deal of astuteness.
Capitan Tiago finally gave in, remembering that medical students get on
intimate terms with corpses, and for some time he had been seeking a
poison to put on the gaffs of his game-cocks, the best he had been able
to secure thus far being the blood of a Chinaman who had died of
syphilis.

With equal diligence, or more if possible, the young man continued this
course, and after the third year began to render medical services with
such great success that he was not only preparing a brilliant future
for himself but also earning enough to dress well and save some money.
This was the last year of the course and in two months he would be a
physician; he would come back to the town, he would marry Juliana, and
they would be happy. The granting of his licentiateship was not only
assured, but he expected it to be the crowning act of his school-days,
for he had been designated to deliver the valedictory at the
graduation, and already he saw himself in the rostrum, before the whole
faculty, the object of public attention. All those heads, leaders of
Manila science, half-hidden in their colored capes; all the women who
came there out of curiosity and who years before had gazed at him, if
not with disdain, at least with indifference; all those men whose
carriages had once been about to crush him down in the mud like a dog:
they would listen attentively, and he was going to say something to
them that would not be trivial, something that had never before
resounded in that place, he was going to forget himself in order to aid
the poor students of the future—and he would make his entrance on his
work in the world with that speech.



CHAPTER VII

SIMOUN


Over these matters Basilio was pondering as he visited his mother’s
grave. He was about to start back to the town when he thought he saw a
light flickering among the trees and heard the snapping of twigs, the
sound of feet, and rustling of leaves. The light disappeared but the
noises became more distinct, coming directly toward where he was.
Basilio was not naturally superstitious, especially after having carved
up so many corpses and watched beside so many death-beds, but the old
legends about that ghostly spot, the hour, the darkness, the melancholy
sighing of the wind, and certain tales heard in his childhood, asserted
their influence over his mind and made his heart beat violently.

The figure stopped on the other side of the balete, but the youth could
see it through an open space between two roots that had grown in the
course of time to the proportions of tree-trunks. It produced from
under its coat a lantern with a powerful reflecting lens, which it
placed on the ground, thereby lighting up a pair of riding-boots, the
rest of the figure remaining concealed in the darkness. The figure
seemed to search its pockets and then bent over to fix a shovel-blade
on the end of a stout cane. To his great surprise Basilio thought he
could make out some of the features of the jeweler Simoun, who indeed
it was.

The jeweler dug in the ground and from time to time the lantern
illuminated his face, on which were not now the blue goggles that so
completely disguised him. Basilio shuddered: that was the same stranger
who thirteen years before had dug his mother’s grave there, only now he
had aged somewhat, his hair had turned white, he wore a beard and a
mustache, but yet his look was the same, the bitter expression, the
same cloud on his brow, the same muscular arms, though somewhat thinner
now, the same violent energy. Old impressions were stirred in the boy:
he seemed to feel the heat of the fire, the hunger, the weariness of
that time, the smell of freshly turned earth. Yet his discovery
terrified him—that jeweler Simoun, who passed for a British Indian, a
Portuguese, an American, a mulatto, the Brown Cardinal, his Black
Eminence, the evil genius of the Captain-General as many called him,
was no other than the mysterious stranger whose appearance and
disappearance coincided with the death of the heir to that land! But of
the two strangers who had appeared, which was Ibarra, the living or the
dead?

This question, which he had often asked himself whenever Ibarra’s death
was mentioned, again came into his mind in the presence of the human
enigma he now saw before him. The dead man had had two wounds, which
must have been made by firearms, as he knew from what he had since
studied, and which would be the result of the chase on the lake. Then
the dead man must have been Ibarra, who had come to die at the tomb of
his forefathers, his desire to be cremated being explained by his
residence in Europe, where cremation is practised. Then who was the
other, the living, this jeweler Simoun, at that time with such an
appearance of poverty and wretchedness, but who had now returned loaded
with gold and a friend of the authorities? There was the mystery, and
the student, with his characteristic cold-bloodedness, determined to
clear it up at the first opportunity.

Simoun dug away for some time, but Basilio noticed that his old vigor
had declined—he panted and had to rest every few moments. Fearing that
he might be discovered, the boy made a sudden resolution. Rising from
his seat and issuing from his hiding-place, he asked in the most
matter-of-fact tone, “Can I help you, sir?”

Simoun straightened up with the spring of a tiger attacked at his prey,
thrust his hand in his coat pocket, and stared at the student with a
pale and lowering gaze.

“Thirteen years ago you rendered me a great service, sir,” went on
Basilio unmoved, “in this very place, by burying my mother, and I
should consider myself happy if I could serve you now.”

Without taking his eyes off the youth Simoun drew a revolver from his
pocket and the click of a hammer being cocked was heard. “For whom do
you take me?” he asked, retreating a few paces.

“For a person who is sacred to me,” replied Basilio with some emotion,
for he thought his last moment had come. “For a person whom all, except
me, believe to be dead, and whose misfortunes I have always lamented.”

An impressive silence followed these words, a silence that to the youth
seemed to suggest eternity. But Simoun, after some hesitation,
approached him and placing a hand on his shoulder said in a moving
tone: “Basilio, you possess a secret that can ruin me and now you have
just surprised me in another, which puts me completely in your hands,
the divulging of which would upset all my plans. For my own security
and for the good of the cause in which I labor, I ought to seal your
lips forever, for what is the life of one man compared to the end I
seek? The occasion is fitting; no one knows that I have come here; I am
armed; you are defenceless; your death would be attributed to the
outlaws, if not to more supernatural causes—yet I’ll let you live and
trust that I shall not regret it. You have toiled, you have struggled
with energetic perseverance, and like myself, you have your scores to
settle with society. Your brother was murdered, your mother driven to
insanity, and society has prosecuted neither the assassin nor the
executioner. You and I are the dregs of justice and instead of
destroying we ought to aid each other.”

Simoun paused with a repressed sigh, and then slowly resumed, while his
gaze wandered about: “Yes, I am he who came here thirteen years ago,
sick and wretched, to pay the last tribute to a great and noble soul
that was willing to die for me. The victim of a vicious system, I have
wandered over the world, working night and day to amass a fortune and
carry out my plan. Now I have returned to destroy that system, to
precipitate its downfall, to hurl it into the abyss toward which it is
senselessly rushing, even though I may have to shed oceans of tears and
blood. It has condemned itself, it stands condemned, and I don’t want
to die before I have seen it in fragments at the foot of the
precipice!”

Simoun extended both his arms toward the earth, as if with that gesture
he would like to hold there the broken remains. His voice took on a
sinister, even lugubrious tone, which made the student shudder.

“Called by the vices of the rulers, I have returned to these islands,
and under the cloak of a merchant have visited the towns. My gold has
opened a way for me and wheresoever I have beheld greed in the most
execrable forms, sometimes hypocritical, sometimes shameless, sometimes
cruel, fatten on the dead organism, like a vulture on a corpse, I have
asked myself—why was there not, festering in its vitals, the
corruption, the ptomaine, the poison of the tombs, to kill the foul
bird? The corpse was letting itself be consumed, the vulture was
gorging itself with meat, and because it was not possible for me to
give it life so that it might turn against its destroyer, and because
the corruption developed slowly, I have stimulated greed, I have
abetted it. The cases of injustice and the abuses multiplied
themselves; I have instigated crime and acts of cruelty, so that the
people might become accustomed to the idea of death. I have stirred up
trouble so that to escape from it some remedy might be found; I have
placed obstacles in the way of trade so that the country, impoverished
and reduced to misery, might no longer be afraid of anything; I have
excited desires to plunder the treasury, and as this has not been
enough to bring about a popular uprising, I have wounded the people in
their most sensitive fiber; I have made the vulture itself insult the
very corpse that it feeds upon and hasten the corruption.

“Now, when I was about to get the supreme rottenness, the supreme
filth, the mixture of such foul products brewing poison, when the greed
was beginning to irritate, in its folly hastening to seize whatever
came to hand, like an old woman caught in a conflagration, here you
come with your cries of Hispanism, with chants of confidence in the
government, in what cannot come to pass, here you have a body
palpitating with heat and life, young, pure, vigorous, throbbing with
blood, with enthusiasm, suddenly come forth to offer itself again as
fresh food!

“Ah, youth is ever inexperienced and dreamy, always running after the
butterflies and flowers! You have united, so that by your efforts you
may bind your fatherland to Spain with garlands of roses when in
reality you are forging upon it chains harder than the diamond! You ask
for equal rights, the Hispanization of your customs, and you don’t see
that what you are begging for is suicide, the destruction of your
nationality, the annihilation of your fatherland, the consecration of
tyranny! What will you be in the future? A people without character, a
nation without liberty—everything you have will be borrowed, even your
very defects! You beg for Hispanization, and do not pale with shame
when they deny it you! And even if they should grant it to you, what
then—what have you gained? At best, a country of pronunciamentos, a
land of civil wars, a republic of the greedy and the malcontents, like
some of the republics of South America! To what are you tending now,
with your instruction in Castilian, a pretension that would be
ridiculous were it not for its deplorable consequences! You wish to add
one more language to the forty odd that are spoken in the islands, so
that you may understand one another less and less.”

“On the contrary,” replied Basilio, “if the knowledge of Castilian may
bind us to the government, in exchange it may also unite the islands
among themselves.”

“A gross error!” rejoined Simoun. “You are letting yourselves be
deceived by big words and never go to the bottom of things to examine
the results in their final analysis. Spanish will never be the general
language of the country, the people will never talk it, because the
conceptions of their brains and the feelings of their hearts cannot be
expressed in that language—each people has its own tongue, as it has
its own way of thinking! What are you going to do with Castilian, the
few of you who will speak it? Kill off your own originality,
subordinate your thoughts to other brains, and instead of freeing
yourselves, make yourselves slaves indeed! Nine-tenths of those of you
who pretend to be enlightened are renegades to your country! He among
you who talks that language neglects his own in such a way that he
neither writes nor understands it, and how many have I not seen who
pretended not to know a single word of it! But fortunately, you have an
imbecile government! While Russia enslaves Poland by forcing the
Russian language upon it, while Germany prohibits French in the
conquered provinces, your government strives to preserve yours, and you
in return, a remarkable people under an incredible government, you are
trying to despoil yourselves of your own nationality! One and all you
forget that while a people preserves its language, it preserves the
marks of its liberty, as a man preserves his independence while he
holds to his own way of thinking. Language is the thought of the
peoples. Luckily, your independence is assured; human passions are
looking out for that!”

Simoun paused and rubbed his hand over his forehead. The waning moon
was rising and sent its faint light down through the branches of the
trees, and with his white locks and severe features, illuminated from
below by the lantern, the jeweler appeared to be the fateful spirit of
the wood planning some evil.

Basilio was silent before such bitter reproaches and listened with
bowed head, while Simoun resumed: “I saw this movement started and have
passed whole nights of anguish, because I understood that among those
youths there were exceptional minds and hearts, sacrificing themselves
for what they thought to be a good cause, when in reality they were
working against their own country. How many times have I wished to
speak to you young men, to reveal myself and undeceive you! But in view
of the reputation I enjoy, my words would have been wrongly interpreted
and would perhaps have had a counter effect. How many times have I not
longed to approach your Makaraig, your Isagani! Sometimes I thought of
their death, I wished to destroy them—”

Simoun checked himself.

“Here’s why I let you live, Basilio, and by such imprudence I expose
myself to the risk of being some day betrayed by you. But you know who
I am, you know how much I must have suffered—then believe in me! You
are not of the common crowd, which sees in the jeweler Simoun the
trader who incites the authorities to commit abuses in order that the
abused may buy jewels. I am the Judge who wishes to castigate this
system by making use of its own defects, to make war on it by
flattering it. I need your help, your influence among the youth, to
combat these senseless desires for Hispanization, for assimilation, for
equal rights. By that road you will become only a poor copy, and the
people should look higher. It is madness to attempt to influence the
thoughts of the rulers—they have their plan outlined, the bandage
covers their eyes, and besides losing time uselessly, you are deceiving
the people with vain hopes and are helping to bend their necks before
the tyrant. What you should do is to take advantage of their prejudices
to serve your needs. Are they unwilling that you be assimilated with
the Spanish people? Good enough! Distinguish yourselves then by
revealing yourselves in your own character, try to lay the foundations
of the Philippine fatherland! Do they deny you hope? Good! Don’t depend
on them, depend upon yourselves and work! Do they deny you
representation in their Cortes? So much the better! Even should you
succeed in sending representatives of your own choice, what are you
going to accomplish there except to be overwhelmed among so many
voices, and sanction with your presence the abuses and wrongs that are
afterwards perpetrated? The fewer rights they allow you, the more
reason you will have later to throw off the yoke, and return evil for
evil. If they are unwilling to teach you their language, cultivate your
own, extend it, preserve to the people their own way of thinking, and
instead of aspiring to be a province, aspire to be a nation! Instead of
subordinate thoughts, think independently, to the end that neither by
right, nor custom, nor language, the Spaniard can be considered the
master here, nor even be looked upon as a part of the country, but ever
as an invader, a foreigner, and sooner or later you will have your
liberty! Here’s why I let you live!”

Basilio breathed freely, as though a great weight had been lifted from
him, and after a brief pause, replied: “Sir, the honor you do me in
confiding your plans to me is too great for me not to be frank with
you, and tell you that what you ask of me is beyond my power. I am no
politician, and if I have signed the petition for instruction in
Castilian it has been because I saw in it an advantage to our studies
and nothing more. My destiny is different; my aspiration reduces itself
to alleviating the physical sufferings of my fellow men.”

The jeweler smiled. “What are physical sufferings compared to moral
tortures? What is the death of a man in the presence of the death of a
society? Some day you will perhaps be a great physician, if they let
you go your way in peace, but greater yet will be he who can inject a
new idea into this anemic people! You, what are you doing for the land
that gave you existence, that supports your life, that affords you
knowledge? Don’t you realize that that is a useless life which is not
consecrated to a great idea? It is a stone wasted in the fields without
becoming a part of any edifice.”

“No, no, sir!” replied Basilio modestly, “I’m not folding my arms, I’m
working like all the rest to raise up from the ruins of the past a
people whose units will be bound together—that each one may feel in
himself the conscience and the life of the whole. But however
enthusiastic our generation may be, we understand that in this great
social fabric there must be a division of labor. I have chosen my task
and will devote myself to science.”

“Science is not the end of man,” declared Simoun.

“The most civilized nations are tending toward it.”

“Yes, but only as a means of seeking their welfare.”

“Science is more eternal, it’s more human, it’s more universal!”
exclaimed the youth in a transport of enthusiasm. “Within a few
centuries, when humanity has become redeemed and enlightened, when
there are no races, when all peoples are free, when there are neither
tyrants nor slaves, colonies nor mother countries, when justice rules
and man is a citizen of the world, the pursuit of science alone will
remain, the word patriotism will be equivalent to fanaticism, and he
who prides himself on patriotic ideas will doubtless be isolated as a
dangerous disease, as a menace to the social order.”

Simoun smiled sadly. “Yes, yes,” he said with a shake of his head, “yet
to reach that condition it is necessary that there be no tyrannical and
no enslaved peoples, it is necessary that man go about freely, that he
know how to respect the rights of others in their own individuality,
and for this there is yet much blood to be shed, the struggle forces
itself forward. To overcome the ancient fanaticism that bound
consciences it was necessary that many should perish in the holocausts,
so that the social conscience in horror declared the individual
conscience free. It is also necessary that all answer the question
which with each day the fatherland asks them, with its fettered hands
extended! Patriotism can only be a crime in a tyrannical people,
because then it is rapine under a beautiful name, but however perfect
humanity may become, patriotism will always be a virtue among oppressed
peoples, because it will at all times mean love of justice, of liberty,
of personal dignity—nothing of chimerical dreams, of effeminate idyls!
The greatness of a man is not in living before his time, a thing almost
impossible, but in understanding its desires, in responding to its
needs, and in guiding it on its forward way. The geniuses that are
commonly believed to have existed before their time, only appear so
because those who judge them see from a great distance, or take as
representative of the age the line of stragglers!”

Simoun fell silent. Seeing that he could awake no enthusiasm in that
unresponsive mind, he turned to another subject and asked with a change
of tone: “And what are you doing for the memory of your mother and your
brother? Is it enough that you come here every year, to weep like a
woman over a grave?” And he smiled sarcastically.

The shot hit the mark. Basilio changed color and advanced a step.

“What do you want me to do?” he asked angrily.

“Without means, without social position, how may I bring their
murderers to justice? I would merely be another victim, shattered like
a piece of glass hurled against a rock. Ah, you do ill to recall this
to me, since it is wantonly reopening a wound!”

“But what if I should offer you my aid?”

Basilio shook his head and remained pensive. “All the tardy
vindications of justice, all the revenge in the world, will not restore
a single hair of my mother’s head, or recall a smile to my brother’s
lips. Let them rest in peace—what should I gain now by avenging them?”

“Prevent others from suffering what you have suffered, that in the
future there be no brothers murdered or mothers driven to madness.
Resignation is not always a virtue; it is a crime when it encourages
tyrants: there are no despots where there are no slaves! Man is in his
own nature so wicked that he always abuses complaisance. I thought as
you do, and you know what my fate was. Those who caused your
misfortunes are watching you day and night, they suspect that you are
only biding your time, they take your eagerness to learn, your love of
study, your very complaisance, for burning desires for revenge. The day
they can get rid of you they will do with you as they did with me, and
they will not let you grow to manhood, because they fear and hate you!”

“Hate me? Still hate me after the wrong they have done me?” asked the
youth in surprise.

Simoun burst into a laugh. “‘It is natural for man to hate those whom
he has wronged,’ said Tacitus, confirming the quos laeserunt et oderunt
of Seneca. When you wish to gauge the evil or the good that one people
has done to another, you have only to observe whether it hates or
loves. Thus is explained the reason why many who have enriched
themselves here in the high offices they have filled, on their return
to the Peninsula relieve themselves by slanders and insults against
those who have been their victims. Proprium humani ingenii est odisse
quern laeseris!”

“But if the world is large, if one leaves them to the peaceful
enjoyment of power, if I ask only to be allowed to work, to live—”

“And to rear meek-natured sons to send them afterwards to submit to the
yoke,” continued Simoun, cruelly mimicking Basilio’s tone. “A fine
future you prepare for them, and they have to thank you for a life of
humiliation and suffering! Good enough, young man! When a body is
inert, it is useless to galvanize it. Twenty years of continuous
slavery, of systematic humiliation, of constant prostration, finally
create in the mind a twist that cannot be straightened by the labor of
a day. Good and evil instincts are inherited and transmitted from
father to son. Then let your idylic ideas live, your dreams of a slave
who asks only for a bandage to wrap the chain so that it may rattle
less and not ulcerate his skin! You hope for a little home and some
ease, a wife and a handful of rice—here is your ideal man of the
Philippines! Well, if they give it to you, consider yourself
fortunate.”

Basilio, accustomed to obey and bear with the caprices and humors of
Capitan Tiago. was now dominated by Simoun, who appeared to him
terrible and sinister on a background bathed in tears and blood. He
tried to explain himself by saying that he did not consider himself fit
to mix in politics, that he had no political opinions because he had
never studied the question, but that he was always ready to lend his
services the day they might be needed, that for the moment he saw only
one need, the enlightenment of the people.

Simoun stopped him with a gesture, and, as the dawn was coming, said to
him: “Young man, I am not warning you to keep my secret, because I know
that discretion is one of your good qualities, and even though you
might wish to sell me, the jeweler Simoun, the friend of the
authorities and of the religious corporations, will always be given
more credit than the student Basilio, already suspected of
filibusterism, and, being a native, so much the more marked and
watched, and because in the profession you are entering upon you will
encounter powerful rivals. After all, even though you have not
corresponded to my hopes, the day on which you change your mind, look
me up at my house in the Escolta, and I’ll be glad to help you.”

Basilio thanked him briefly and went away.

“Have I really made a mistake?” mused Simoun, when he found himself
alone. “Is it that he doubts me and meditates his plan of revenge so
secretly that he fears to tell it even in the solitude of the night? Or
can it be that the years of servitude have extinguished in his heart
every human sentiment and there remain only the animal desires to live
and reproduce? In that case the type is deformed and will have to be
cast over again. Then the hecatomb is preparing: let the unfit perish
and only the strongest survive!”

Then he added sadly, as if apostrophizing some one: “Have patience, you
who left me a name and a home, have patience! I have lost all—country,
future, prosperity, your very tomb, but have patience! And thou, noble
spirit, great soul, generous heart, who didst live with only one
thought and didst sacrifice thy life without asking the gratitude or
applause of any one, have patience, have patience! The methods that I
use may perhaps not be thine, but they are the most direct. The day is
coming, and when it brightens I myself will come to announce it to you
who are now indifferent. Have patience!”



CHAPTER VIII

MERRY CHRISTMAS!


When Juli opened her sorrowing eyes, she saw that the house was still
dark, but the cocks were crowing. Her first thought was that perhaps
the Virgin had performed the miracle and the sun was not going to rise,
in spite of the invocations of the cocks. She rose, crossed herself,
recited her morning prayers with great devotion, and with as little
noise as possible went out on the batalan.

There was no miracle—the sun was rising and promised a magnificent
morning, the breeze was delightfully cool, the stars were paling in the
east, and the cocks were crowing as if to see who could crow best and
loudest. That had been too much to ask—it were much easier to request
the Virgin to send the two hundred and fifty pesos. What would it cost
the Mother of the Lord to give them? But underneath the image she found
only the letter of her father asking for the ransom of five hundred
pesos. There was nothing to do but go, so, seeing that her grandfather
was not stirring, she thought him asleep and began to prepare
breakfast. Strange, she was calm, she even had a desire to laugh! What
had she had last night to afflict her so? She was not going very far,
she could come every second day to visit the house, her grandfather
could see her, and as for Basilio, he had known for some time the bad
turn her father’s affairs had taken, since he had often said to her,
“When I’m a physician and we are married, your father won’t need his
fields.”

“What a fool I was to cry so much,” she said to herself as she packed
her tampipi. Her fingers struck against the locket and she pressed it
to her lips, but immediately wiped them from fear of contagion, for
that locket set with diamonds and emeralds had come from a leper. Ah,
then, if she should catch that disease she could not get married.

As it became lighter, she could see her grandfather seated in a corner,
following all her movements with his eyes, so she caught up her tampipi
of clothes and approached him smilingly to kiss his hand. The old man
blessed her silently, while she tried to appear merry. “When father
comes back, tell him that I have at last gone to college—my mistress
talks Spanish. It’s the cheapest college I could find.”

Seeing the old man’s eyes fill with tears, she placed the tampipi on
her head and hastily went downstairs, her slippers slapping merrily on
the wooden steps. But when she turned her head to look again at the
house, the house wherein had faded her childhood dreams and her maiden
illusions, when she saw it sad, lonely, deserted, with the windows half
closed, vacant and dark like a dead man’s eyes, when she heard the low
rustling of the bamboos, and saw them nodding in the fresh morning
breeze as though bidding her farewell, then her vivacity disappeared;
she stopped, her eyes filled with tears, and letting herself fall in a
sitting posture on a log by the wayside she broke out into disconsolate
tears.

Juli had been gone several hours and the sun was quite high overhead
when Tandang Selo gazed from the window at the people in their festival
garments going to the town to attend the high mass. Nearly all led by
the hand or carried in their arms a little boy or girl decked out as if
for a fiesta.

Christmas day in the Philippines is, according to the elders, a fiesta
for the children, who are perhaps not of the same opinion and who, it
may be supposed, have for it an instinctive dread. They are roused
early, washed, dressed, and decked out with everything new, dear, and
precious that they possess—high silk shoes, big hats, woolen or velvet
suits, without overlooking four or five scapularies, which contain
texts from St. John, and thus burdened they are carried to the high
mass, where for almost an hour they are subjected to the heat and the
human smells from so many crowding, perspiring people, and if they are
not made to recite the rosary they must remain quiet, bored, or asleep.
At each movement or antic that may soil their clothing they are pinched
and scolded, so the fact is that they do not laugh or feel happy, while
in their round eyes can be read a protest against so much embroidery
and a longing for the old shirt of week-days.

Afterwards, they are dragged from house to house to kiss their
relatives’ hands. There they have to dance, sing, and recite all the
amusing things they know, whether in the humor or not, whether
comfortable or not in their fine clothes, with the eternal pinchings
and scoldings if they play any of their tricks. Their relatives give
them cuartos which their parents seize upon and of which they hear
nothing more. The only positive results they are accustomed to get from
the fiesta are the marks of the aforesaid pinchings, the vexations, and
at best an attack of indigestion from gorging themselves with candy and
cake in the houses of kind relatives. But such is the custom, and
Filipino children enter the world through these ordeals, which
afterwards prove the least sad, the least hard, of their lives.

Adult persons who live independently also share in this fiesta, by
visiting their parents and their parents’ relatives, crooking their
knees, and wishing them a merry Christmas. Their Christmas gift
consists of a sweetmeat, some fruit, a glass of water, or some
insignificant present.

Tandang Selo saw all his friends pass and thought sadly that this year
he had no Christmas gift for anybody, while his granddaughter had gone
without hers, without wishing him a merry Christinas. Was it delicacy
on Juli’s part or pure forgetfulness?

When he tried to greet the relatives who called on him, bringing their
children, he found to his great surprise that he could not articulate a
word. Vainly he tried, but no sound could he utter. He placed his hands
on his throat, shook his head, but without effect. When he tried to
laugh, his lips trembled convulsively and the only noise produced was a
hoarse wheeze like the blowing of bellows.

The women gazed at him in consternation. “He’s dumb, he’s dumb!” they
cried in astonishment, raising at once a literal pandemonium.



CHAPTER IX

PILATES


When the news of this misfortune became known in the town, some
lamented it and others shrugged their shoulders. No one was to blame,
and no one need lay it on his conscience.

The lieutenant of the Civil Guard gave no sign: he had received an
order to take up all the arms and he had performed his duty. He had
chased the tulisanes whenever he could, and when they captured Cabesang
Tales he had organized an expedition and brought into the town, with
their arms bound behind them, five or six rustics who looked
suspicious, so if Cabesang Tales did not show up it was because he was
not in the pockets or under the skins of the prisoners, who were
thoroughly shaken out.

The friar-administrator shrugged his shoulders: he had nothing to do
with it, it was a matter of tulisanes and he had merely done his duty.
True it was that if he had not entered the complaint, perhaps the arms
would not have been taken up, and poor Tales would not have been
captured; but he, Fray Clemente, had to look after his own safety, and
that Tales had a way of staring at him as if picking out a good target
in some part of his body. Self-defense is natural. If there are
tulisanes, the fault is not his, it is not his duty to run them
down—that belongs to the Civil Guard. If Cabesang Tales, instead of
wandering about his fields, had stayed at home, he would not have been
captured. In short, that was a punishment from heaven upon those who
resisted the demands of his corporation.

When Sister Penchang, the pious old woman in whose service Juli had
entered, learned of it, she ejaculated several ’Susmarioseps, crossed
herself, and remarked, “Often God sends these trials because we are
sinners or have sinning relatives, to whom we should have taught piety
and we haven’t done so.”

Those sinning relatives referred to Juliana, for to this pious woman
Juli was a great sinner. “Think of a girl of marriageable age who
doesn’t yet know how to pray! Jesús, how scandalous! If the wretch
doesn’t say the Diós te salve María without stopping at es contigo, and
the Santa María without a pause after pecadores, as every good
Christian who fears God ought to do! She doesn’t know the oremus
gratiam, and says mentíbus for méntibus. Anybody hearing her would
think she was talking about something else. ’Susmariosep!”

Greatly scandalized, she made the sign of the cross and thanked God,
who had permitted the capture of the father in order that the daughter
might be snatched from sin and learn the virtues which, according to
the curates, should adorn every Christian woman. She therefore kept the
girl constantly at work, not allowing her to return to the village to
look after her grandfather. Juli had to learn how to pray, to read the
books distributed by the friars, and to work until the two hundred and
fifty pesos should be paid.

When she learned that Basilio had gone to Manila to get his savings and
ransom Juli from her servitude, the good woman believed that the girl
was forever lost and that the devil had presented himself in the guise
of the student. Dreadful as it all was, how true was that little book
the curate had given her! Youths who go to Manila to study are ruined
and then ruin the others. Thinking to rescue Juli, she made her read
and re-read the book called Tandang Basio Macunat, [17] charging her
always to go and see the curate in the convento, [18] as did the
heroine, who is so praised by the author, a friar.

Meanwhile, the friars had gained their point. They had certainly won
the suit, so they took advantage of Cabesang Tales’ captivity to turn
the fields over to the one who had asked for them, without the least
thought of honor or the faintest twinge of shame. When the former owner
returned and learned what had happened, when he saw his fields in
another’s possession,—those fields that had cost the lives of his wife
and daughter,—when he saw his father dumb and his daughter working as a
servant, and when he himself received an order from the town council,
transmitted through the headman of the village, to move out of the
house within three days, he said nothing; he sat down at his father’s
side and spoke scarcely once during the whole day.



CHAPTER X

WEALTH AND WANT


On the following day, to the great surprise of the village, the jeweler
Simoun, followed by two servants, each carrying a canvas-covered chest,
requested the hospitality of Cabesang Tales, who even in the midst of
his wretchedness did not forget the good Filipino customs—rather, he
was troubled to think that he had no way of properly entertaining the
stranger. But Simoun brought everything with him, servants and
provisions, and merely wished to spend the day and night in the house
because it was the largest in the village and was situated between San
Diego and Tiani, towns where he hoped to find many customers.

Simoun secured information about the condition of the roads and asked
Cabesang Tales if his revolver was a sufficient protection against the
tulisanes.

“They have rifles that shoot a long way,” was the rather absent-minded
reply.

“This revolver does no less,” remarked Simoun, firing at an areca-palm
some two hundred paces away.

Cabesang Tales noticed that some nuts fell, but remained silent and
thoughtful.

Gradually the families, drawn by the fame of the jeweler’s wares, began
to collect. They wished one another merry Christmas, they talked of
masses, saints, poor crops, but still were there to spend their savings
for jewels and trinkets brought from Europe. It was known that the
jeweler was the friend of the Captain-General, so it wasn’t lost labor
to get on good terms with him, and thus be prepared for contingencies.

Capitan Basilio came with his wife, daughter, and son-in-law, prepared
to spend at least three thousand pesos. Sister Penchang was there to
buy a diamond ring she had promised to the Virgin of Antipolo. She had
left Juli at home memorizing a booklet the curate had sold her for four
cuartos, with forty days of indulgence granted by the Archbishop to
every one who read it or listened to it read.

“Jesús!” said the pious woman to Capitana Tika, “that poor girl has
grown up like a mushroom planted by the tikbalang. I’ve made her read
the book at the top of her voice at least fifty times and she doesn’t
remember a single word of it. She has a head like a sieve—full when
it’s in the water. All of us hearing her, even the dogs and cats, have
won at least twenty years of indulgence.”

Simoun arranged his two chests on the table, one being somewhat larger
than the other. “You don’t want plated jewelry or imitation gems. This
lady,” turning to Sinang, “wants real diamonds.”

“That’s it, yes, sir, diamonds, old diamonds, antique stones, you
know,” she responded. “Papa will pay for them, because he likes antique
things, antique stones.” Sinang was accustomed to joke about the great
deal of Latin her father understood and the little her husband knew.

“It just happens that I have some antique jewels,” replied Simoun,
taking the canvas cover from the smaller chest, a polished steel case
with bronze trimmings and stout locks. “I have necklaces of
Cleopatra’s, real and genuine, discovered in the Pyramids; rings of
Roman senators and knights, found in the ruins of Carthage.”

“Probably those that Hannibal sent back after the battle of Cannae!”
exclaimed Capitan Basilio seriously, while he trembled with pleasure.
The good man, thought he had read much about the ancients, had never,
by reason of the lack of museums in Filipinas, seen any of the objects
of those times.

“I have brought besides costly earrings of Roman ladies, discovered in
the villa of Annius Mucius Papilinus in Pompeii.”

Capitan Easilio nodded to show that he understood and was eager to see
such precious relics. The women remarked that they also wanted things
from Rome, such as rosaries blessed by the Pope, holy relics that would
take away sins without the need of confessions, and so on.

When the chest was opened and the cotton packing removed, there was
exposed a tray filled with rings, reliquaries, lockets, crucifixes,
brooches, and such like. The diamonds set in among variously colored
stones flashed out brightly and shimmered among golden flowers of
varied hues, with petals of enamel, all of peculiar designs and rare
Arabesque workmanship.

Simoun lifted the tray and exhibited another filled with quaint jewels
that would have satisfied the imaginations of seven débutantes on the
eves of the balls in their honor. Designs, one more fantastic than the
other, combinations of precious stones and pearls worked into the
figures of insects with azure backs and transparent forewings,
sapphires, emeralds, rubies, turquoises, diamonds, joined to form
dragon-flies, wasps, bees, butterflies, beetles, serpents, lizards,
fishes, sprays of flowers. There were diadems, necklaces of pearls and
diamonds, so that some of the girls could not withhold a nakú of
admiration, and Sinang gave a cluck with her tongue, whereupon her
mother pinched her to prevent her from encouraging the jeweler to raise
his prices, for Capitana Tika still pinched her daughter even after the
latter was married.

“Here you have some old diamonds,” explained the jeweler. “This ring
belonged to the Princess Lamballe and those earrings to one of Marie
Antoinette’s ladies.” They consisted of some beautiful solitaire
diamonds, as large as grains of corn, with somewhat bluish lights, and
pervaded with a severe elegance, as though they still reflected in
their sparkles the shuddering of the Reign of Terror.

“Those two earrings!” exclaimed Sinang, looking at her father and
instinctively covering the arm next to her mother.

“Something more ancient yet, something Roman,” said Capitan Basilio
with a wink.

The pious Sister Penchang thought that with such a gift the Virgin of
Antipolo would be softened and grant her her most vehement desire: for
some time she had begged for a wonderful miracle to which her name
would be attached, so that her name might be immortalized on earth and
she then ascend into heaven, like the Capitana Ines of the curates. She
inquired the price and Simoun asked three thousand pesos, which made
the good woman cross herself—’Susmariosep!

Simoun now exposed the third tray, which was filled with watches,
cigar- and match-cases decorated with the rarest enamels, reliquaries
set with diamonds and containing the most elegant miniatures.

The fourth tray, containing loose gems, stirred a murmur of admiration.
Sinang again clucked with her tongue, her mother again pinched her,
although at the same time herself emitting a ’Susmaría of wonder.

No one there had ever before seen so much wealth. In that chest lined
with dark-blue velvet, arranged in trays, were the wonders of the
Arabian Nights, the dreams of Oriental fantasies. Diamonds as large as
peas glittered there, throwing out attractive rays as if they were
about to melt or burn with all the hues of the spectrum; emeralds from
Peru, of varied forms and shapes; rubies from India, red as drops of
blood; sapphires from Ceylon, blue and white; turquoises from Persia;
Oriental pearls, some rosy, some lead-colored, others black. Those who
have at night seen a great rocket burst in the azure darkness of the
sky into thousands of colored lights, so bright that they make the
eternal stars look dim, can imagine the aspect the tray presented.

As if to increase the admiration of the beholders, Simoun took the
stones out with his tapering brown fingers, gloating over their
crystalline hardness, their luminous stream, as they poured from his
hands like drops of water reflecting the tints of the rainbow. The
reflections from so many facets, the thought of their great value,
fascinated the gaze of every one.

Cabesang Tales, who had approached out of curiosity, closed his eyes
and drew back hurriedly, as if to drive away an evil thought. Such
great riches were an insult to his misfortunes; that man had come there
to make an exhibition of his immense wealth on the very day that he,
Tales, for lack of money, for lack of protectors, had to abandon the
house raised by his own hands.

“Here you have two black diamonds, among the largest in existence,”
explained the jeweler. “They’re very difficult to cut because they’re
the very hardest. This somewhat rosy stone is also a diamond, as is
this green one that many take for an emerald. Quiroga the Chinaman
offered me six thousand pesos for it in order to present it to a very
influential lady, and yet it is not the green ones that are the most
valuable, but these blue ones.”

He selected three stones of no great size, but thick and well-cut, of a
delicate azure tint.

“For all that they are smaller than the green,” he continued, “they
cost twice as much. Look at this one, the smallest of all, weighing not
more than two carats, which cost me twenty thousand pesos and which I
won’t sell for less than thirty. I had to make a special trip to buy
it. This other one, from the mines of Golconda, weighs three and a half
carats and is worth over seventy thousand. The Viceroy of India, in a
letter I received the day before yesterday, offers me twelve thousand
pounds sterling for it.”

Before such great wealth, all under the power of that man who talked so
unaffectedly, the spectators felt a kind of awe mingled with dread.
Sinang clucked several times and her mother did not pinch her, perhaps
because she too was overcome, or perhaps because she reflected that a
jeweler like Simoun was not going to try to gain five pesos more or
less as a result of an exclamation more or less indiscreet. All gazed
at the gems, but no one showed any desire to handle them, they were so
awe-inspiring. Curiosity was blunted by wonder. Cabesang Tales stared
out into the field, thinking that with a single diamond, perhaps the
very smallest there, he could recover his daughter, keep his house, and
perhaps rent another farm. Could it be that those gems were worth more
than a man’s home, the safety of a maiden, the peace of an old man in
his declining days?

As if he guessed the thought, Simoun remarked to those about him: “Look
here—with one of these little blue stones, which appear so innocent and
inoffensive, pure as sparks scattered over the arch of heaven, with one
of these, seasonably presented, a man was able to have his enemy
deported, the father of a family, as a disturber of the peace; and with
this other little one like it, red as one’s heart-blood, as the feeling
of revenge, and bright as an orphan’s tears, he was restored to
liberty, the man was returned to his home, the father to his children,
the husband to the wife, and a whole family saved from a wretched
future.”

He slapped the chest and went on in a loud tone in bad Tagalog: “Here I
have, as in a medicine-chest, life and death, poison and balm, and with
this handful I can drive to tears all the inhabitants of the
Philippines!”

The listeners gazed at him awe-struck, knowing him to be right. In his
voice there could be detected a strange ring, while sinister flashes
seemed to issue from behind the blue goggles.

Then as if to relieve the strain of the impression made by the gems on
such simple folk, he lifted up the tray and exposed at the bottom the
sanctum sanctorum. Cases of Russian leather, separated by layers of
cotton, covered a bottom lined with gray velvet. All expected wonders,
and Sinang’s husband thought he saw carbuncles, gems that flashed fire
and shone in the midst of the shadows. Capitan Basilio was on the
threshold of immortality: he was going to behold something real,
something beyond his dreams.

“This was a necklace of Cleopatra’s,” said Simoun, taking out carefully
a flat case in the shape of a half-moon. “It’s a jewel that can’t be
appraised, an object for a museum, only for a rich government.”

It was a necklace fashioned of bits of gold representing little idols
among green and blue beetles, with a vulture’s head made from a single
piece of rare jasper at the center between two extended wings—the
symbol and decoration of Egyptian queens.

Sinang turned up her nose and made a grimace of childish depreciation,
while Capitan Basilio, with all his love for antiquity, could not
restrain an exclamation of disappointment.

“It’s a magnificent jewel, well-preserved, almost two thousand years
old.”

“Pshaw!” Sinang made haste to exclaim, to prevent her father’s falling
into temptation.

“Fool!” he chided her, after overcoming his first disappointment. “How
do you know but that to this necklace is due the present condition of
the world? With this Cleopatra may have captivated Caesar, Mark Antony!
This has heard the burning declarations of love from the greatest
warriors of their time, it has listened to speeches in the purest and
most elegant Latin, and yet you would want to wear it!”

“I? I wouldn’t give three pesos for it.”

“You could give twenty, silly,” said Capitana Tika in a judicial tone.
“The gold is good and melted down would serve for other jewelry.”

“This is a ring that must have belonged to Sulla,” continued Simoun,
exhibiting a heavy ring of solid gold with a seal on it.

“With that he must have signed the death-wrarrants during his
dictatorship!” exclaimed Capitan Basilio, pale with emotion. He
examined it and tried to decipher the seal, but though he turned it
over and over he did not understand paleography, so he could not read
it.

“What a finger Sulla had!” he observed finally. “This would fit two of
ours—as I’ve said, we’re degenerating!”

“I still have many other jewels—”

“If they’re all that kind, never mind!” interrupted Sinang. “I think I
prefer the modern.”

Each one selected some piece of jewelry, one a ring, another a watch,
another a locket. Capitana Tika bought a reliquary that contained a
fragment of the stone on which Our Saviour rested at his third fall;
Sinang a pair of earrings; and Capitan Basilio the watch-chain for the
alferez, the lady’s earrings for the curate, and other gifts. The
families from the town of Tiani, not to be outdone by those of San
Diego, in like manner emptied their purses.

Simoun bought or exchanged old jewelry, brought there by economical
mothers, to whom it was no longer of use.

“You, haven’t you something to sell?” he asked Cabesang Tales, noticing
the latter watching the sales and exchanges with covetous eyes, but the
reply was that all his daughter’s jewels had been sold, nothing of
value remained.

“What about Maria Clara’s locket?” inquired Sinang.

“True!” the man exclaimed, and his eyes blazed for a moment.

“It’s a locket set with diamonds and emeralds,” Sinang told the
jeweler. “My old friend wore it before she became a nun.”

Simoun said nothing, but anxiously watched Cabesang Tales, who, after
opening several boxes, found the locket. He examined it carefully,
opening and shutting it repeatedly. It was the same locket that Maria
Clara had worn during the fiesta in San Diego and which she had in a
moment of compassion given to a leper.

“I like the design,” said Simoun. “How much do you want for it?”

Cabesang Tales scratched his head in perplexity, then his ear, then
looked at the women.

“I’ve taken a fancy to this locket,” Simoun went on. “Will you take a
hundred, five hundred pesos? Do you want to exchange it for something
else? Take your choice here!”

Tales stared foolishly at Simoun, as if in doubt of what he heard.
“Five hundred pesos?” he murmured.

“Five hundred,” repeated the jeweler in a voice shaking with emotion.

Cabesang Tales took the locket and made several turns about the room,
with his heart beating violently and his hands trembling. Dared he ask
more? That locket could save him, this was an excellent opportunity,
such as might not again present itself.

The women winked at him to encourage him to make the sale, excepting
Penchang, who, fearing that Juli would be ransomed, observed piously:
“I would keep it as a relic. Those who have seen Maria Clara in the
nunnery say she has got so thin and weak that she can scarcely talk and
it’s thought that she’ll die a saint. Padre Salvi speaks very highly of
her and he’s her confessor. That’s why Juli didn’t want ito give it up,
but rather preferred to pawn herself.”

This speech had its effect—the thought of his daughter restrained
Tales. “If you will allow me,” he said, “I’ll go to the town to consult
my daughter. I’ll be back before night.”

This was agreed upon and Tales set out at once. But when he found
himself outside of the village, he made out at a distance, on a path,
that entered the woods, the friar-administrator and a man whom he
recognized as the usurper of his land. A husband seeing his wife enter
a private room with another man could not feel more wrath or jealousy
than Cabesang Tales experienced when he saw them moving over his
fields, the fields cleared by him, which he had thought to leave to his
children. It seemed to him that they were mocking him, laughing at his
powerlessness. There flashed into his memory what he had said about
never giving up his fields except to him who irrigated them with his
own blood and buried in them his wife and daughter.

He stopped, rubbed his hand over his forehead, and shut his eyes. When
he again opened them, he saw that the man had turned to laugh and that
the friar had caught his sides as though to save himself from bursting
with merriment, then he saw them point toward his house and laugh
again.

A buzz sounded in his ears, he felt the crack of a whip around his
chest, the red mist reappeared before his eyes, he again saw the
corpses of his wife and daughter, and beside them the usurper with the
friar laughing and holding his sides. Forgetting everything else, he
turned aside into the path they had taken, the one leading to his
fields.

Simoun waited in vain for Cabesang Tales to return that night. But the
next morning when he arose he noticed that the leather holster of his
revolver was empty. Opening it he found inside a scrap of paper wrapped
around the locket set with emeralds and diamonds, with these few lines
written on it in Tagalog:


   “Pardon, sir, that in my own house I relieve you of what belongs to
    you, but necessity drives me to it. In exchange for your revolver I
    leave the locket you desired so much. I need the weapon, for I am
    going out to join the tulisanes.

   “I advise you not to keep on your present road, because if you fall
    into our power, not then being my guest, we will require of you a
    large ransom.

        Telesforo Juan de Dios.”


“At last I’ve found my man!” muttered Simoun with a deep breath. “He’s
somewhat scrupulous, but so much the better—he’ll keep his promises.”

He then ordered a servant to go by boat over the lake to Los Baños with
the larger chest and await him there. He would go on overland, taking
the smaller chest, the one containing his famous jewels. The arrival of
four civil-guards completed his good humor. They came to arrest
Cabesang Tales and not finding him took Tandang Selo away instead.

Three murders had been committed during the night. The
friar-administrator and the new tenant of Cabesang Tales’ land had been
found dead, with their heads split open and their mouths full of earth,
on the border of the fields. In the town the wife of the usurper was
found dead at dawn, her mouth also filled with earth and her throat
cut, with a fragment of paper beside her, on which was the name Tales,
written in blood as though traced by a finger.

Calm yourselves, peaceful inhabitants of Kalamba! None of you are named
Tales, none of you have committed any crime! You are called Luis
Habaña, Matías Belarmino, Nicasio Eigasani, Cayetano de Jesús, Mateo
Elejorde, Leandro Lopez, Antonino Lopez, Silvestre Ubaldo, Manuel
Hidalgo, Paciano Mercado, your name is the whole village of Kalamba.
[19] You cleared your fields, on them you have spent the labor of your
whole lives, your savings, your vigils and privations, and you have
been despoiled of them, driven from your homes, with the rest forbidden
to show you hospitality! Not content with outraging justice, they [20]
have trampled upon the sacred traditions of your country! You have
served Spain and the King, and when in their name you have asked for
justice, you were banished without trial, torn from your wives’ arms
and your children’s caresses! Any one of you has suffered more than
Cabesang Tales, and yet none, not one of you, has received justice!
Neither pity nor humanity has been shown you—you have been persecuted
beyond the tomb, as was Mariano Herbosa! [21] Weep or laugh, there in
those lonely isles where you wander vaguely, uncertain of the future!
Spain, the generous Spain, is watching over you, and sooner or later
you will have justice!



CHAPTER XI

LOS BAÑOS


His Excellency, the Captain-General and Governor of the Philippine
Islands, had been hunting in Bosoboso. But as he had to be accompanied
by a band of music,—since such an exalted personage was not to be
esteemed less than the wooden images carried in the processions,—and as
devotion to the divine art of St. Cecilia has not yet been popularized
among the deer and wild boars of Bosoboso, his Excellency, with the
band of music and train of friars, soldiers, and clerks, had not been
able to catch a single rat or a solitary bird.

The provincial authorities foresaw dismissals and transfers, the poor
gobernadorcillos and cabezas de barangay were restless and sleepless,
fearing that the mighty hunter in his wrath might have a notion to make
up with their persons for the lack of submissiveness on the part of the
beasts of the forest, as had been done years before by an alcalde who
had traveled on the shoulders of impressed porters because he found no
horses gentle enough to guarantee his safety. There was not lacking an
evil rumor that his Excellency had decided to take some action, since
in this he saw the first symptoms of a rebellion which should be
strangled in its infancy, that a fruitless hunt hurt the prestige of
the Spanish name, that he already had his eye on a wretch to be dressed
up as a deer, when his Excellency, with clemency that Ben-Zayb lacked
words to extol sufficiently, dispelled all the fears by declaring that
it pained him to sacrifice to his pleasure the beasts of the forest.

But to tell the truth, his Excellency was secretly very well satisfied,
for what would have happened had he missed a shot at a deer, one of
those not familiar with political etiquette? What would the prestige of
the sovereign power have come to then? A Captain-General of the
Philippines missing a shot, like a raw hunter? What would have been
said by the Indians, among whom there were some fair huntsmen? The
integrity of the fatherland would have been endangered.

So it was that his Excellency, with a sheepish smile, and posing as a
disappointed hunter, ordered an immediate return to Los Baños. During
the journey he related with an indifferent air his hunting exploits in
this or that forest of the Peninsula, adopting a tone somewhat
depreciative, as suited the case, toward hunting in Filipinas. The bath
in Dampalit, the hot springs on the shore of the lake, card-games in
the palace, with an occasional excursion to some neighboring waterfall,
or the lake infested with caymans, offered more attractions and fewer
risks to the integrity of the fatherland.

Thus on one of the last days of December, his Excellency found himself
in the sala, taking a hand at cards while he awaited the breakfast
hour. He had come from the bath, with the usual glass of coconut-milk
and its soft meat, so he was in the best of humors for granting favors
and privileges. His good humor was increased by his winning a good many
hands, for Padre Irene and Padre Sibyla, with whom he was playing, were
exercising all their skill in secretly trying to lose, to the great
irritation of Padre Camorra, who on account of his late arrival only
that morning was not informed as to the game they were playing on the
General. The friar-artilleryman was playing in good faith and with
great care, so he turned red and bit his lip every time Padre Sibyla
seemed inattentive or blundered, but he dared not say a word by reason
of the respect he felt for the Dominican. In exchange he took his
revenge out on Padre Irene, whom he looked upon as a base fawner and
despised for his coarseness. Padre Sibyla let him scold, while the
humbler Padre Irene tried to excuse himself by rubbing his long nose.
His Excellency was enjoying it and took advantage, like the good
tactician that the Canon hinted he was, of all the mistakes of his
opponents. Padre Camorra was ignorant of the fact that across the table
they were playing for the intellectual development of the Filipinos,
the instruction in Castilian, but had he known it he would doubtless
have joyfully entered into that game.

The open balcony admitted the fresh, pure breeze and revealed the lake,
whose waters murmured sweetly around the base of the edifice, as if
rendering homage. On the right, at a distance, appeared Talim Island, a
deep blue in the midst of the lake, while almost in front lay the green
and deserted islet of Kalamba, in the shape of a half-moon. To the left
the picturesque shores were fringed with clumps of bamboo, then a hill
overlooking the lake, with wide ricefields beyond, then red roofs amid
the deep green of the trees,—the town of Kalamba,—and beyond the
shore-line fading into the distance, with the horizon at the back
closing down over the water, giving the lake the appearance of a sea
and justifying the name the Indians give it of dagat na tabang, or
fresh-water sea.

At the end of the sala, seated before a table covered with documents,
was the secretary. His Excellency was a great worker and did not like
to lose time, so he attended to business in the intervals of the game
or while dealing the cards. Meanwhile, the bored secretary yawned and
despaired. That morning he had worked, as usual, over transfers,
suspensions of employees, deportations, pardons, and the like, but had
not yet touched the great question that had stirred so much
interest—the petition of the students requesting permission to
establish an academy of Castilian. Pacing from one end of the room to
the other and conversing animatedly but in low tones were to be seen
Don Custodio, a high official, and a friar named Padre Fernandez, who
hung his head with an air either of meditation or annoyance. From an
adjoining room issued the click of balls striking together and bursts
of laughter, amid which might be heard the sharp, dry voice of Simoun,
who was playing billiards with Ben-Zayb.

Suddenly Padre Camorra arose. “The devil with this game, puñales!” he
exclaimed, throwing his cards at Padre Irene’s head. “Puñales, that
trick, if not all the others, was assured and we lost by default!
Puñales! The devil with this game!”

He explained the situation angrily to all the occupants of the sala,
addressing himself especially to the three walking about, as if he had
selected them for judges. The general played thus, he replied with such
a card, Padre Irene had a certain card; he led, and then that fool of a
Padre Irene didn’t play his card! Padre Irene was giving the game away!
It was a devil of a way to play! His mother’s son had not come here to
rack his brains for nothing and lose his money!

Then he added, turning very red, “If the booby thinks my money grows on
every bush!... On top of the fact that my Indians are beginning to
haggle over payments!” Fuming, and disregarding the excuses of Padre
Irene, who tried to explain while he rubbed the tip of his beak in
order to conceal his sly smile, he went into the billiardroom.

“Padre Fernandez, would you like to take a hand?” asked Fray Sibyla.

“I’m a very poor player,” replied the friar with a grimace.

“Then get Simoun,” said the General. “Eh, Simoun! Eh, Mister, won’t you
try a hand?”

“What is your disposition concerning the arms for sporting purposes?”
asked the secretary, taking advantage of the pause.

Simoun thrust his head through the doorway.

“Don’t you want to take Padre Camorra’s place, Señor Sindbad?” inquired
Padre Irene. “You can bet diamonds instead of chips.”

“I don’t care if I do,” replied Simoun, advancing while he brushed the
chalk from his hands. “What will you bet?”

“What should we bet?” returned Padre Sibyla. “The General can bet what
he likes, but we priests, clerics—”

“Bah!” interrupted Simoun ironically. “You and Padre Irene can pay with
deeds of charity, prayers, and virtues, eh?”

“You know that the virtues a person may possess,” gravely argued Padre
Sibyla, “are not like the diamonds that may pass from hand to hand, to
be sold and resold. They are inherent in the being, they are essential
attributes of the subject—”

“I’ll be satisfied then if you pay me with promises,” replied Simoun
jestingly. “You, Padre Sibyla, instead of paying me five something or
other in money, will say, for example: for five days I renounce
poverty, humility, and obedience. You, Padre Irene: I renounce
chastity, liberality, and so on. Those are small matters, and I’m
putting up my diamonds.”

“What a peculiar man this Simoun is, what notions he has!” exclaimed
Padre Irene with a smile.

“And he,” continued Simoun, slapping his Excellency familiarly on the
shoulder, “he will pay me with an order for five days in prison, or
five months, or an order of deportation made out in blank, or let us
say a summary execution by the Civil Guard while my man is being
conducted from one town to another.”

This was a strange proposition, so the three who had been pacing about
gathered around.

“But, Señor Simoun,” asked the high official, “what good will you get
out of winning promises of virtues, or lives and deportations and
summary executions?”

“A great deal! I’m tired of hearing virtues talked about and would like
to have the whole of them, all there are in the world, tied up in a
sack, in order to throw them into the sea, even though I had to use my
diamonds for sinkers.”

“What an idea!” exclaimed Padre Irene with another smile. “And the
deportations and executions, what of them?”

“Well, to clean the country and destroy every evil seed.”

“Get out! You’re still sore at the tulisanes. But you were lucky that
they didn’t demand a larger ransom or keep all your jewels. Man, don’t
be ungrateful!”

Simoun proceeded to relate how he had been intercepted by a band of
tulisanes, who, after entertaining him for a day, had let him go on his
way without exacting other ransom than his two fine revolvers and the
two boxes of cartridges he carried with him. He added that the
tulisanes had charged him with many kind regards for his Excellency,
the Captain-General.

As a result of this, and as Simoun reported that the tulisanes were
well provided with shotguns, rifles, and revolvers, and against such
persons one man alone, no matter how well armed, could not defend
himself, his Excellency, to prevent the tulisanes from getting weapons
in the future, was about to dictate a new decree forbidding the
introduction of sporting arms.

“On the contrary, on the contrary!” protested Simoun, “for me the
tulisanes are the most respectable men in the country, they’re the only
ones who earn their living honestly. Suppose I had fallen into the
hands—well, of you yourselves, for example, would you have let me
escape without taking half of my jewels, at least?”

Don Custodio was on the point of protesting; that Simoun was really a
rude American mulatto taking advantage of his friendship with the
Captain-General to insult Padre Irene, although it may be true also
that Padre Irene would hardly have set him free for so little.

“The evil is not,” went on Simoun, “in that there are tulisanes in the
mountains and uninhabited parts—the evil lies in the tulisanes in the
towns and cities.”

“Like yourself,” put in the Canon with a smile.

“Yes, like myself, like all of us! Let’s be frank, for no Indian is
listening to us here,” continued the jeweler. “The evil is that we’re
not all openly declared tulisanes. When that happens and we all take to
the woods, on that day the country will be saved, on that day will rise
a new social order which will take care of itself, and his Excellency
will be able to play his game in peace, without the necessity of having
his attention diverted by his secretary.”

The person mentioned at that moment yawned, extending his folded arms
above his head and stretching his crossed legs under the table as far
as possible, upon noticing which all laughed. His Excellency wished to
change the course of the conversation, so, throwing down the cards he
had been shuffling, he said half seriously: “Come, come, enough of
jokes and cards! Let’s get to work, to work in earnest, since we still
have a half-hour before breakfast. Are there many matters to be got
through with?”

All now gave their attention. That was the day for joining battle over
the question of instruction in Castilian, for which purpose Padre
Sibyla and Padre Irene had been there several days. It was known that
the former, as Vice-Rector, was opposed to the project and that the
latter supported it, and his activity was in turn supported by the
Countess.

“What is there, what is there?” asked his Excellency impatiently.

“The petition about sporting arms,” replied the secretary with a
stifled yawn.

“Forbidden!”

“Pardon, General,” said the high official gravely, “your Excellency
will permit me to invite your attention to the fact that the use of
sporting arms is permitted in all the countries of the world.”

The General shrugged his shoulders and remarked dryly, “We are not
imitating any nation in the world.”

Between his Excellency and the high official there was always a
difference of opinion, so it was sufficient that the latter offer any
suggestion whatsoever to have the former remain stubborn.

The high official tried another tack. “Sporting arms can harm only rats
and chickens. They’ll say—”

“But are we chickens?” interrupted the General, again shrugging his
shoulders. “Am I? I’ve demonstrated that I’m not.”

“But there’s another thing,” observed the secretary. “Four months ago,
when the possession of arms was prohibited, the foreign importers were
assured that sporting arms would be admitted.”

His Excellency knitted his brows.

“That can be arranged,” suggested Simoun.

“How?”

“Very simply. Sporting arms nearly all have a caliber of six
millimeters, at least those now in the market. Authorize only the sale
of those that haven’t these six millimeters.”

All approved this idea of Simoun’s, except the high official, who
muttered into Padre Fernandez’s ear that this was not dignified, nor
was it the way to govern.

“The schoolmaster of Tiani,” proceeded the secretary, shuffling some
papers about, “asks for a better location for—”

“What better location can he want than the storehouse that he has all
to himself?” interrupted Padre Camorra, who had returned, having
forgotten about the card-game.

“He says that it’s roofless,” replied the secretary, “and that having
purchased out of his own pocket some maps and pictures, he doesn’t want
to expose them to the weather.”

“But I haven’t anything to do with that,” muttered his Excellency. “He
should address the head secretary, [22] the governor of the province,
or the nuncio.”

“I want to tell you,” declared Padre Camorra, “that this little
schoolmaster is a discontented filibuster. Just imagine—the heretic
teaches that corpses rot just the same, whether buried with great pomp
or without any! Some day I’m going to punch him!” Here he doubled up
his fists.

“To tell the truth,” observed Padre Sibyla, as if speaking only to
Padre Irene, “he who wishes to teach, teaches everywhere, in the open
air. Socrates taught in the public streets, Plato in the gardens of the
Academy, even Christ among the mountains and lakes.”

“I’ve heard several complaints against this schoolmaster,” said his
Excellency, exchanging a glance with Simoun. “I think the best thing
would be to suspend him.”

“Suspended!” repeated the secretary.

The luck of that unfortunate, who had asked for help and received his
dismissal, pained the high official and he tried to do something for
him.

“It’s certain,” he insinuated rather timidly, “that education is not at
all well provided for—”

“I’ve already decreed large sums for the purchase of supplies,”
exclaimed his Excellency haughtily, as if to say, “I’ve done more than
I ought to have done.”

“But since suitable locations are lacking, the supplies purchased get
ruined.”

“Everything can’t be done at once,” said his Excellency dryly. “The
schoolmasters here are doing wrong in asking for buildings when those
in Spain starve to death. It’s great presumption to be better off here
than in the mother country itself!”

“Filibusterism—”

“Before everything the fatherland! Before everything else we are
Spaniards!” added Ben-Zayb, his eyes glowing with patriotism, but he
blushed somewhat when he noticed that he was speaking alone.

“In the future,” decided the General, “all who complain will be
suspended.”

“If my project were accepted—” Don Custodio ventured to remark, as if
talking to himself.

“For the construction of schoolhouses?”

“It’s simple, practical, economical, and, like all my projects, derived
from long experience and knowledge of the country. The towns would have
schools without costing the government a cuarto.”

“That’s easy,” observed the secretary sarcastically. “Compel the towns
to construct them at their own expense,” whereupon all laughed.

“No, sir! No, sir!” cried the exasperated Don Custodio, turning very
red. “The buildings are already constructed and only wait to be
utilized. Hygienic, unsurpassable, spacious—”

The friars looked at one another uneasily. Would Don Custodio propose
that the churches and conventos be converted into schoolhouses?

“Let’s hear it,” said the General with a frown.

“Well, General, it’s very simple,” replied Don Custodio, drawing
himself up and assuming his hollow voice of ceremony. “The schools are
open only on week-days and the cockpits on holidays. Then convert these
into schoolhouses, at least during the week.”

“Man, man, man!”

“What a lovely idea!”

“What’s the matter with you, Don Custodio?”

“That’s a grand suggestion!”

“That beats them all!”

“But, gentlemen,” cried Don Custodio, in answer to so many
exclamations, “let’s be practical—what places are more suitable than
the cockpits? They’re large, well constructed, and under a curse for
the use to which they are put during the week-days. From a moral
standpoint my project would be acceptable, by serving as a kind of
expiation and weekly purification of the temple of chance, as we might
say.”

“But the fact remains that sometimes there are cockfights during the
week,” objected Padre Camorra, “and it wouldn’t be right when the
contractors of the cockpits pay the government—” [23]

“Well, on those days close the school!”

“Man, man!” exclaimed the scandalized Captain-General. “Such an outrage
shall never be perpetrated while I govern! To close the schools in
order to gamble! Man, man, I’ll resign first!” His Excellency was
really horrified.

“But, General, it’s better to close them for a few days than for
months.”

“It would be immoral,” observed Padre Irene, more indignant even than
his Excellency.

“It’s more immoral that vice has good buildings and learning none.
Let’s be practical, gentlemen, and not be carried away by sentiment. In
politics there’s nothing worse than sentiment. While from humane
considerations we forbid the cultivation of opium in our colonies, we
tolerate the smoking of it, and the result is that we do not combat the
vice but impoverish ourselves.”

“But remember that it yields to the government, without any effort,
more than four hundred and fifty thousand pesos,” objected Padre Irene,
who was getting more and more on the governmental side.

“Enough, enough, enough!” exclaimed his Excellency, to end the
discussion. “I have my own plans in this regard and will devote special
attention to the matter of public instruction. Is there anything else?”

The secretary looked uneasily toward Padre Sibyla and Padre Irene. The
cat was about to come out of the bag. Both prepared themselves.

“The petition of the students requesting authorization to open an
academy of Castilian,” answered the secretary.

A general movement was noted among those in the room. After glancing at
one another they fixed their eyes on the General to learn what his
disposition would be. For six months the petition had lain there
awaiting a decision and had become converted into a kind of casus belli
in certain circles. His Excellency had lowered his eyes, as if to keep
his thoughts from being read.

The silence became embarrassing, as the General understood, so he asked
the high official, “What do you think?”

“What should I think, General?” responded the person addressed, with a
shrug of his shoulders and a bitter smile. “What should I think but
that the petition is just, very just, and that I am surprised that six
months should have been taken to consider it.”

“The fact is that it involves other considerations,” said Padre Sibyla
coldly, as he half closed his eyes.

The high official again shrugged his shoulders, like one who did not
comprehend what those considerations could be.

“Besides the intemperateness of the demand,” went on the Dominican,
“besides the fact that it is in the nature of an infringement on our
prerogatives—”

Padre Sibyla dared not go on, but looked at Simoun.

“The petition has a somewhat suspicious character,” corroborated that
individual, exchanging a look with the Dominican, who winked several
times.

Padre Irene noticed these things and realized that his cause was almost
lost—Simoun was against him.

“It’s a peaceful rebellion, a revolution on stamped paper,” added Padre
Sibyla.

“Revolution? Rebellion?” inquired the high official, staring from one
to the other as if he did not understand what they could mean.

“It’s headed by some young men charged with being too radical and too
much interested in reforms, not to use stronger terms,” remarked the
secretary, with a look at the Dominican. “Among them is a certain
Isagani, a poorly balanced head, nephew of a native priest—”

“He’s a pupil of mine,” put in Padre Fernandez, “and I’m much pleased
with him.”

“Puñales, I like your taste!” exclaimed Padre Camorra. “On the steamer
we nearly had a fight. He’s so insolent that when I gave him a shove
aside he returned it.”

“There’s also one Makaragui or Makarai—”

“Makaraig,” Padre Irene joined in. “A very pleasant and agreeable young
man.”

Then he murmured into the General’s ear, “He’s the one I’ve talked to
you about, he’s very rich. The Countess recommends him strongly.”

“Ah!”

“A medical student, one Basilio—”

“Of that Basilio, I’ll say nothing,” observed Padre Irene, raising his
hands and opening them, as if to say Dominus vobiscum. “He’s too deep
for me. I’ve never succeeded in fathoming what he wants or what he is
thinking about. It’s a pity that Padre Salvi isn’t present to tell us
something about his antecedents. I believe that I’ve heard that when a
boy he got into trouble with the Civil Guard. His father was killed
in—I don’t remember what disturbance.”

Simoun smiled faintly, silently, showing his sharp white teeth.

“Aha! Aha!” said his Excellency nodding. “That’s the kind we have! Make
a note of that name.”

“But, General,” objected the high official, seeing that the matter was
taking a bad turn, “up to now nothing positive is known against these
young men. Their position is a very just one, and we have no right to
deny it on the ground of mere conjectures. My opinion is that the
government, by exhibiting confidence in the people and in its own
stability, should grant what is asked, then it could freely revoke the
permission when it saw that its kindness was being abused—reasons and
pretexts would not be wanting, we can watch them. Why cause
disaffection among some young men, who later on may feel resentment,
when what they ask is commanded by royal decrees?”

Padre Irene, Don Custodio, and Padre Fernandez nodded in agreement.

“But the Indians must not understand Castilian, you know,” cried Padre
Camorra. “They mustn’t learn it, for then they’ll enter into arguments
with us, and the Indians must not argue, but obey and pay. They mustn’t
try to interpret the meaning of the laws and the books, they’re so
tricky and pettifogish! Just as soon as they learn Castilian they
become enemies of God and of Spain. Just read the Tandang Basio
Macunat—that’s a book! It tells truths like this!” And he held up his
clenched fists.

Padre Sibyla rubbed his hand over his tonsure in sign of impatience.
“One word,” he began in the most conciliatory tone, though fuming with
irritation, “here we’re not dealing with the instruction in Castilian
alone. Here there is an underhand fight between the students and the
University of Santo Tomas. If the students win this, our prestige will
be trampled in the dirt, they will say that they’ve beaten us and will
exult accordingly. Then, good-by to moral strength, good-by to
everything! The first dike broken down, who will restrain this youth?
With our fall we do no more than signal your own. After us, the
government!”

“Puñales, that’s not so!” exclaimed Padre Camorra. “We’ll see first who
has the biggest fists!”

At this point Padre Fernandez, who thus far in the discussion had
merely contented himself with smiling, began to talk. All gave him
their attention, for they knew him to be a thoughtful man.

“Don’t take it ill of me, Padre Sibyla, if I differ from your view of
the affair, but it’s my peculiar fate to be almost always in opposition
to my brethren. I say, then, that we ought not to be so pessimistic.
The instruction in Castilian can be allowed without any risk whatever,
and in order that it may not appear to be a defeat of the University,
we Dominicans ought to put forth our efforts and be the first to
rejoice over it—that should be our policy. To what end are we to be
engaged in an everlasting struggle with the people, when after all we
are the few and they are the many, when we need them and they do not
need us? Wait, Padre Camorra, wait! Admit that now the people may be
weak and ignorant—I also believe that—but it will not be true tomorrow
or the day after. Tomorrow and the next day they will be the stronger,
they will know what is good for them, and we cannot keep it from them,
just as it is not possible to keep from children the knowledge of many
things when they reach a certain age. I say, then, why should we not
take advantage of this condition of ignorance to change our policy
completely, to place it upon a basis solid and enduring—on the basis of
justice, for example, instead of on the basis of ignorance? There’s
nothing like being just; that I’ve always said to my brethren, but they
won’t believe me. The Indian idolizes justice, like every race in its
youth; he asks for punishment when he has done wrong, just as he is
exasperated when he has not deserved it. Is theirs a just desire? Then
grant it! Let’s give them all the schools they want, until they are
tired of them. Youth is lazy, and what urges them to activity is our
opposition. Our bond of prestige, Padre Sibyla, is about worn out, so
let’s prepare another, the bond of gratitude, for example. Let’s not be
fools, let’s do as the crafty Jesuits—”

“Padre Fernandez!” Anything could be tolerated by Padre Sibyla except
to propose the Jesuits to him as a model. Pale and trembling, he broke
out into bitter recrimination. “A Franciscan first! Anything before a
Jesuit!” He was beside himself.

“Oh, oh!”

“Eh, Padre—”

A general discussion broke out, regardless of the Captain-General. All
talked at once, they yelled, they misunderstood and contradicted one
another. Ben-Zayb and Padre Camorra shook their fists in each other’s
faces, one talking of simpletons and the other of ink-slingers, Padre
Sibyla kept harping on the Capitulum, and Padre Fernandez on the Summa
of St. Thomas, until the curate of Los Baños entered to announce that
breakfast was served.

His Excellency arose and so ended the discussion. “Well, gentlemen,” he
said, “we’ve worked like niggers and yet we’re on a vacation. Some one
has said that grave matters should be considered at dessert. I’m
entirely of that opinion.”

“We might get indigestion,” remarked the secretary, alluding to the
heat of the discussion.

“Then we’ll lay it aside until tomorrow.”

As they rose the high official whispered to the General, “Your
Excellency, the daughter of Cabesang Tales has been here again begging
for the release of her sick grandfather, who was arrested in place of
her father.”

His Excellency looked at him with an expression of impatience and
rubbed his hand across his broad forehead. “Carambas! Can’t one be left
to eat his breakfast in peace?”

“This is the third day she has come. She’s a poor girl—”

“Oh, the devil!” exclaimed Padre Camorra. “I’ve just thought of it. I
have something to say to the General about that—that’s what I came over
for—to support that girl’s petition.”

The General scratched the back of his ear and said, “Oh, go along! Have
the secretary make out an order to the lieutenant of the Civil Guard
for the old man’s release. They sha’n’t say that we’re not clement and
merciful.”

He looked at Ben-Zayb. The journalist winked.



CHAPTER XII

PLACIDO PENITENTE


Reluctantly, and almost with tearful eyes, Placido Penitente was going
along the Escolta on his way to the University of Santo Tomas. It had
hardly been a week since he had come from his town, yet he had already
written to his mother twice, reiterating his desire to abandon his
studies and go back there to work. His mother answered that he should
have patience, that at the least he must be graduated as a bachelor of
arts, since it would be unwise to desert his books after four years of
expense and sacrifices on both their parts.

Whence came to Penitente this aversion to study, when he had been one
of the most diligent in the famous college conducted by Padre Valerio
in Tanawan? There Penitente had been considered one of the best
Latinists and the subtlest disputants, one who could tangle or untangle
the simplest as well as the most abstruse questions. His townspeople
considered him very clever, and his curate, influenced by that opinion,
already classified him as a filibuster—a sure proof that he was neither
foolish nor incapable. His friends could not explain those desires for
abandoning his studies and returning: he had no sweethearts, was not a
gambler, hardly knew anything about hunkían and rarely tried his luck
at the more familiar revesino. He did not believe in the advice of the
curates, laughed at Tandang Basio Macunat, had plenty of money and good
clothes, yet he went to school reluctantly and looked with repugnance
on his books.

On the Bridge of Spain, a bridge whose name alone came from Spain,
since even its ironwork came from foreign countries, he fell in with
the long procession of young men on their way to the Walled City to
their respective schools. Some were dressed in the European fashion and
walked rapidly, carrying books and notes, absorbed in thoughts of their
lessons and essays—these were the students of the Ateneo. Those from
San Juan de Letran were nearly all dressed in the Filipino costume, but
were more numerous and carried fewer books. Those from the University
are dressed more carefully and elegantly and saunter along carrying
canes instead of books. The collegians of the Philippines are not very
noisy or turbulent. They move along in a preoccupied manner, such that
upon seeing them one would say that before their eyes shone no hope, no
smiling future. Even though here and there the line is brightened by
the attractive appearance of the schoolgirls of the Escuela Municipal,
[24] with their sashes across their shoulders and their books in their
hands, followed by their servants, yet scarcely a laugh resounds or a
joke can be heard—nothing of song or jest, at best a few heavy jokes or
scuffles among the smaller boys. The older ones nearly always proceed
seriously and composedly, like the German students.

Placido was proceeding along the Paseo de Magallanes toward the
breach—formerly the gate—of Santo Domingo, when he suddenly felt a slap
on the shoulder, which made him turn quickly in ill humor.

“Hello, Penitente! Hello, Penitente!”

It was his schoolmate Juanito Pelaez, the barbero or pet of the
professors, as big a rascal as he could be, with a roguish look and a
clownish smile. The son of a Spanish mestizo—a rich merchant in one of
the suburbs, who based all his hopes and joys on the boy’s talent—he
promised well with his roguery, and, thanks to his custom of playing
tricks on every one and then hiding behind his companions, he had
acquired a peculiar hump, which grew larger whenever he was laughing
over his deviltry.

“What kind of time did you have, Penitente?” was his question as he
again slapped him on the shoulder.

“So, so,” answered Placido, rather bored. “And you?”

“Well, it was great! Just imagine—the curate of Tiani invited me to
spend the vacation in his town, and I went. Old man, you know Padre
Camorra, I suppose? Well, he’s a liberal curate, very jolly, frank,
very frank, one of those like Padre Paco. As there were pretty girls,
we serenaded them all, he with his guitar and songs and I with my
violin. I tell you, old man, we had a great time—there wasn’t a house
we didn’t try!”

He whispered a few words in Placido’s ear and then broke out into
laughter. As the latter exhibited some surprise, he resumed: “I’ll
swear to it! They can’t help themselves, because with a governmental
order you get rid of the father, husband, or brother, and then—merry
Christmas! However, we did run up against a little fool, the
sweetheart, I believe, of Basilio, you know? Look, what a fool this
Basilio is! To have a sweetheart who doesn’t know a word of Spanish,
who hasn’t any money, and who has been a servant! She’s as shy as she
can be, but pretty. Padre Camorra one night started to club two fellows
who were serenading her and I don’t know how it was he didn’t kill
them, yet with all that she was just as shy as ever. But it’ll result
for her as it does with all the women, all of them!”

Juanito Pelaez laughed with a full mouth, as though he thought this a
glorious thing, while Placido stared at him in disgust.

“Listen, what did the professor explain yesterday?” asked Juanito,
changing the conversation.

“Yesterday there was no class.”

“Oho, and the day before yesterday?”

“Man, it was Thursday!”

“Right! What an ass I am! Don’t you know, Placido, that I’m getting to
be a regular ass? What about Wednesday?”

“Wednesday? Wait—Wednesday, it was a little wet.”

“Fine! What about Tuesday, old man?”

“Tuesday was the professor’s nameday and we went to entertain him with
an orchestra, present him flowers and some gifts.”

“Ah, carambas!” exclaimed Juanito, “that I should have forgotten about
it! What an ass I am! Listen, did he ask for me?”

Penitente shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t know, but they gave him a
list of his entertainers.”

“Carambas! Listen—Monday, what happened?”

“As it was the first school-day, he called the roll and assigned the
lesson—about mirrors. Look, from here to here, by memory, word for
word. We jump all this section, we take that.” He was pointing out with
his finger in the “Physics” the portions that were to be learned, when
suddenly the book flew through the air, as a result of the slap Juanito
gave it from below.

“Thunder, let the lessons go! Let’s have a dia pichido!”

The students in Manila call dia pichido a school-day that falls between
two holidays and is consequently suppressed, as though forced out by
their wish.

“Do you know that you really are an ass?” exclaimed Placido, picking up
his book and papers.

“Let’s have a dia pichido!” repeated Juanito.

Placido was unwilling, since for only two the authorities were hardly
going to suspend a class of more than a hundred and fifty. He recalled
the struggles and privations his mother was suffering in order to keep
him in Manila, while she went without even the necessities of life.

They were just passing through the breach of Santo Domingo, and
Juanito, gazing across the little plaza [25] in front of the old
Customs building, exclaimed, “Now I think of it, I’m appointed to take
up the collection.”

“What collection?”

“For the monument.”

“What monument?”

“Get out! For Padre Balthazar, you know.”

“And who was Padre Balthazar?”

“Fool! A Dominican, of course—that’s why the padres call on the
students. Come on now, loosen up with three or four pesos, so that they
may see we are sports. Don’t let them say afterwards that in order to
erect a statue they had to dig down into their own pockets. Do,
Placido, it’s not money thrown away.”

He accompanied these words with a significant wink. Placido recalled
the case of a student who had passed through the entire course by
presenting canary-birds, so he subscribed three pesos.

“Look now, I’ll write your name plainly so that the professor will read
it, you see—Placido Penitente, three pesos. Ah, listen! In a couple of
weeks comes the nameday of the professor of natural history. You know
that he’s a good fellow, never marks absences or asks about the lesson.
Man, we must show our appreciation!”

“That’s right!”

“Then don’t you think that we ought to give him a celebration? The
orchestra must not be smaller than the one you had for the professor of
physics.”

“That’s right!”

“What do you think about making the contribution two pesos? Come,
Placido, you start it, so you’ll be at the head of the list.”

Then, seeing that Placido gave the two pesos without hesitation, he
added, “Listen, put up four, and afterwards I’ll return you two.
They’ll serve as a decoy.”

“Well, if you’re going to return them to me, why give them to you?
It’ll be sufficient, for you to write four.”

“Ah, that’s right! What an ass I am! Do you know, I’m getting to be a
regular ass! But let me have them anyhow, so that I can show them.”

Placido, in order not to give the lie to the priest who christened him,
gave what was asked, just as they reached the University.

In the entrance and along the walks on each side of it were gathered
the students, awaiting the appearance of the professors. Students of
the preparatory year of law, of the fifth of the secondary course, of
the preparatory in medicine, formed lively groups. The latter were
easily distinguished by their clothing and by a certain air that was
lacking in the others, since the greater part of them came from the
Ateneo Municipal. Among them could be seen the poet Isagani, explaining
to a companion the theory of the refraction of light. In another group
they were talking, disputing, citing the statements of the professor,
the text-books, and scholastic principles; in yet another they were
gesticulating and waving their books in the air or making
demonstrations with their canes by drawing diagrams on the ground;
farther on, they were entertaining themselves in watching the pious
women go into the neighboring church, all the students making facetious
remarks. An old woman leaning on a young girl limped piously, while the
girl moved along with downcast eyes, timid and abashed to pass before
so many curious eyes. The old lady, catching up her coffee-colored
skirt, of the Sisterhood of St. Rita, to reveal her big feet and white
stockings, scolded her companion and shot furious glances at the
staring bystanders.

“The rascals!” she grunted. “Don’t look at them, keep your eyes down.”

Everything was noticed; everything called forth jokes and comments. Now
it was a magnificent victoria which stopped at the door to set down a
family of votaries on their way to visit the Virgin of the Rosary [26]
on her favorite day, while the inquisitive sharpened their eyes to get
a glimpse of the shape and size of the young ladies’ feet as they got
out of the carriages; now it was a student who came out of the door
with devotion still shining in his eyes, for he had passed through the
church to beg the Virgin’s help in understanding his lesson and to see
if his sweetheart was there, to exchange a few glances with her and go
on to his class with the recollection of her loving eyes.

Soon there was noticed some movement in the groups, a certain air of
expectancy, while Isagani paused and turned pale. A carriage drawn by a
pair of well-known white horses had stopped at the door. It was that of
Paulita Gomez, and she had already jumped down, light as a bird,
without giving the rascals time to see her foot. With a bewitching
whirl of her body and a sweep of her hand she arranged the folds of her
skirt, shot a rapid and apparently careless glance toward Isagani,
spoke to him and smiled. Doña Victorina descended in her turn, gazed
over her spectacles, saw Juanito Pelaez, smiled, and bowed to him
affably.

Isagani, flushed with excitement, returned a timid salute, while
Juanito bowed profoundly, took off his hat, and made the same gesture
as the celebrated clown and caricaturist Panza when he received
applause.

“Heavens, what a girl!” exclaimed one of the students, starting
forward. “Tell the professor that I’m seriously ill.” So Tadeo, as this
invalid youth was known, entered the church to follow the girl.

Tadeo went to the University every day to ask if the classes would be
held and each time seemed to be more and more astonished that they
would. He had a fixed idea of a latent and eternal holiday, and
expected it to come any day. So each morning, after vainly proposing
that they play truant, he would go away alleging important business, an
appointment, or illness, just at the very moment when his companions
were going to their classes. But by some occult, thaumaturgic art Tadeo
passed the examinations, was beloved by the professors, and had before
him a promising future.

Meanwhile, the groups began to move inside, for the professor of
physics and chemistry had put in his appearance. The students appeared
to be cheated in their hopes and went toward the interior of the
building with exclamations of discontent. Placido went along with the
crowd.

“Penitente, Penitente!” called a student with a certain mysterious air.
“Sign this!”

“What is it?”

“Never mind—sign it!”

It seemed to Placido that some one was twitching his ears. He recalled
the story of a cabeza de barangay in his town who, for having signed a
document that he did not understand, was kept a prisoner for months and
months, and came near to deportation. An uncle of Placido’s, in order
to fix the lesson in his memory, had given him a severe ear-pulling, so
that always whenever he heard signatures spoken of, his ears reproduced
the sensation.

“Excuse me, but I can’t sign anything without first understanding what
it’s about.”

“What a fool you are! If two celestial carbineers have signed it, what
have you to fear?”

The name of celestial carbineers inspired confidence, being, as it was,
a sacred company created to aid God in the warfare against the evil
spirit and to prevent the smuggling of heretical contraband into the
markets of the New Zion. [27]

Placido was about to sign to make an end of it, because he was in a
hurry,—already his classmates were reciting the O Thoma,—but again his
ears twitched, so he said, “After the class! I want to read it first.”

“It’s very long, don’t you see? It concerns the presentation of a
counter-petition, or rather, a protest. Don’t you understand? Makaraig
and some others have asked that an academy of Castilian be opened,
which is a piece of genuine foolishness—”

“All right, all right, after awhile. They’re already beginning,”
answered Placido, trying to get away.

“But your professor may not call the roll—”

“Yes, yes; but he calls it sometimes. Later on, later on! Besides, I
don’t want to put myself in opposition to Makaraig.”

“But it’s not putting yourself in opposition, it’s only—”

Placido heard no more, for he was already far away, hurrying to his
class. He heard the different voices—adsum, adsum—the roll was being
called! Hastening his steps he got to the door just as the letter Q was
reached.

“Tinamáan ñg—!” [28] he muttered, biting his lips.

He hesitated about entering, for the mark was already down against him
and was not to be erased. One did not go to the class to learn but in
order not to get this absence mark, for the class was reduced to
reciting the lesson from memory, reading the book, and at the most
answering a few abstract, profound, captious, enigmatic questions.
True, the usual preachment was never lacking—the same as ever, about
humility, submission, and respect to the clerics, and he, Placido, was
humble, submissive, and respectful. So he was about to turn away when
he remembered that the examinations were approaching and his professor
had not yet asked him a question nor appeared to notice him—this would
be a good opportunity to attract his attention and become known! To be
known was to gain a year, for if it cost nothing to suspend one who was
not known, it required a hard heart not to be touched by the sight of a
youth who by his daily presence was a reproach over a year of his life
wasted.

So Placido went in, not on tiptoe as was his custom, but noisily on his
heels, and only too well did he succeed in his intent! The professor
stared at him, knitted his brows, and shook his head, as though to say,
“Ah, little impudence, you’ll pay for that!”



CHAPTER XIII

THE CLASS IN PHYSICS


The classroom was a spacious rectangular hall with large grated windows
that admitted an abundance of light and air. Along the two sides
extended three wide tiers of stone covered with wood, filled with
students arranged in alphabetical order. At the end opposite the
entrance, under a print of St. Thomas Aquinas, rose the professor’s
chair on an elevated platform with a little stairway on each side. With
the exception of a beautiful blackboard in a narra frame, scarcely ever
used, since there was still written on it the viva that had appeared on
the opening day, no furniture, either useful or useless, was to be
seen. The walls, painted white and covered with glazed tiles to prevent
scratches, were entirely bare, having neither a drawing nor a picture,
nor even an outline of any physical apparatus. The students had no need
of any, no one missed the practical instruction in an extremely
experimental science; for years and years it has been so taught and the
country has not been upset, but continues just as ever. Now and then
some little instrument descended from heaven and was exhibited to the
class from a distance, like the monstrance to the prostrate
worshipers—look, but touch not! From time to time, when some complacent
professor appeared, one day in the year was set aside for visiting the
mysterious laboratory and gazing from without at the puzzling apparatus
arranged in glass cases. No one could complain, for on that day there
were to be seen quantities of brass and glassware, tubes, disks,
wheels, bells, and the like—the exhibition did not get beyond that, and
the country was not upset.

Besides, the students were convinced that those instruments had not
been purchased for them—the friars would be fools! The laboratory was
intended to be shown to the visitors and the high officials who came
from the Peninsula, so that upon seeing it they would nod their heads
with satisfaction, while their guide would smile, as if to say, “Eh,
you thought you were going to find some backward monks! Well, we’re
right up with the times—we have a laboratory!”

The visitors and high officials, after being handsomely entertained,
would then write in their Travels or Memoirs: “The Royal and Pontifical
University of Santo Tomas of Manila, in charge of the enlightened
Dominican Order, possesses a magnificent physical laboratory for the
instruction of youth. Some two hundred and fifty students annually
study this subject, but whether from apathy, indolence, the limited
capacity of the Indian, or some other ethnological or incomprehensible
reason, up to now there has not developed a Lavoisier, a Secchi, or a
Tyndall, not even in miniature, in the Malay-Filipino race.”

Yet, to be exact, we will say that in this laboratory are held the
classes of thirty or forty advanced students, under the direction of an
instructor who performs his duties well enough, but as the greater part
of these students come from the Ateneo of the Jesuits, where science is
taught practically in the laboratory itself, its utility does not come
to be so great as it would be if it could be utilized by the two
hundred and fifty who pay their matriculation fees, buy their books,
memorize them, and waste a year to know nothing afterwards. As a
result, with the exception of some rare usher or janitor who has had
charge of the museum for years, no one has ever been known to get any
advantage from the lessons memorized with so great effort.

But let us return to the class. The professor was a young Dominican,
who had filled several chairs in San Juan de Letran with zeal and good
repute. He had the reputation of being a great logician as well as a
profound philosopher, and was one of the most promising in his clique.
His elders treated him with consideration, while the younger men envied
him, for there were also cliques among them. This was the third year of
his professorship and, although the first in which he had taught
physics and chemistry, he already passed for a sage, not only with the
complaisant students but also among the other nomadic professors. Padre
Millon did not belong to the common crowd who each year change their
subject in order to acquire scientific knowledge, students among other
students, with the difference only that they follow a single course,
that they quiz instead of being quizzed, that they have a better
knowledge of Castilian, and that they are not examined at the
completion of the course. Padre Millon went deeply into science, knew
the physics of Aristotle and Padre Amat, read carefully his “Ramos,”
and sometimes glanced at “Ganot.” With all that, he would often shake
his head with an air of doubt, as he smiled and murmured: “transeat.”
In regard to chemistry, no common knowledge was attributed to him after
he had taken as a premise the statement of St. Thomas that water is a
mixture and proved plainly that the Angelic Doctor had long forestalled
Berzelius, Gay-Lussac, Bunsen, and other more or less presumptuous
materialists. Moreover, in spite of having been an instructor in
geography, he still entertained certain doubts as to the rotundity of
the earth and smiled maliciously when its rotation and revolution
around the sun were mentioned, as he recited the verses


       “El mentir de las estrellas
        Es un cómodo mentir.” [29]


He also smiled maliciously in the presence of certain physical theories
and considered visionary, if not actually insane, the Jesuit Secchi, to
whom he imputed the making of triangulations on the host as a result of
his astronomical mania, for which reason it was said that he had been
forbidden to celebrate mass. Many persons also noticed in him some
aversion to the sciences that he taught, but these vagaries were
trifles, scholarly and religious prejudices that were easily explained,
not only by the fact that the physical sciences were eminently
practical, of pure observation and deduction, while his forte was
philosophy, purely speculative, of abstraction and induction, but also
because, like any good Dominican, jealous of the fame of his order, he
could hardly feel any affection for a science in which none of his
brethren had excelled—he was the first who did not accept the chemistry
of St. Thomas Aquinas—and in which so much renown had been acquired by
hostile, or rather, let us say, rival orders.

This was the professor who that morning called the roll and directed
many of the students to recite the lesson from memory, word for word.
The phonographs got into operation, some well, some ill, some
stammering, and received their grades. He who recited without an error
earned a good mark and he who made more than three mistakes a bad mark.

A fat boy with a sleepy face and hair as stiff and hard as the bristles
of a brush yawned until he seemed to be about to dislocate his jaws,
and stretched himself with his arms extended as though he were in his
bed. The professor saw this and wished to startle him.

“Eh, there, sleepy-head! What’s this? Lazy, too, so it’s sure you [30]
don’t know the lesson, ha?”

Padre Millon not only used the depreciative tu with the students, like
a good friar, but he also addressed them in the slang of the markets, a
practise that he had acquired from the professor of canonical law:
whether that reverend gentleman wished to humble the students or the
sacred decrees of the councils is a question not yet settled, in spite
of the great attention that has been given to it.

This question, instead of offending the class, amused them, and many
laughed—it was a daily occurrence. But the sleeper did not laugh; he
arose with a bound, rubbed his eyes, and, as though a steam-engine were
turning the phonograph, began to recite.

“The name of mirror is applied to all polished surfaces intended to
produce by the reflection of light the images of the objects placed
before said surfaces. From the substances that form these surfaces,
they are divided into metallic mirrors and glass mirrors—”

“Stop, stop, stop!” interrupted the professor. “Heavens, what a rattle!
We are at the point where the mirrors are divided into metallic and
glass, eh? Now if I should present to you a block of wood, a piece of
kamagon for instance, well polished and varnished, or a slab of black
marble well burnished, or a square of jet, which would reflect the
images of objects placed before them, how would you classify those
mirrors?”

Whether he did not know what to answer or did not understand the
question, the student tried to get out of the difficulty by
demonstrating that he knew the lesson, so he rushed on like a torrent.

“The first are composed of brass or an alloy of different metals and
the second of a sheet of glass, with its two sides well polished, one
of which has an amalgam of tin adhering to it.”

“Tut, tut, tut! That’s not it! I say to you ‘Dominus vobiscum,’ and you
answer me with ‘Requiescat in pace!’ ”

The worthy professor then repeated the question in the vernacular of
the markets, interspersed with cosas and abás at every moment.

The poor youth did not know how to get out of the quandary: he doubted
whether to include the kamagon with the metals, or the marble with
glasses, and leave the jet as a neutral substance, until Juanito Pelaez
maliciously prompted him:

“The mirror of kamagon among the wooden mirrors.”

The incautious youth repeated this aloud and half the class was
convulsed with laughter.

“A good sample of wood you are yourself!” exclaimed the professor,
laughing in spite of himself. “Let’s see from what you would define a
mirror—from a surface per se, in quantum est superficies, or from a
substance that forms the surface, or from the substance upon which the
surface rests, the raw material, modified by the attribute ‘surface,’
since it is clear that, surface being an accidental property of bodies,
it cannot exist without substance. Let’s see now—what do you say?”

“I? Nothing!” the wretched boy was about to reply, for he did not
understand what it was all about, confused as he was by so many
surfaces and so many accidents that smote cruelly on his ears, but a
sense of shame restrained him. Filled with anguish and breaking into a
cold perspiration, he began to repeat between his teeth: “The name of
mirror is applied to all polished surfaces—”

“Ergo, per te, the mirror is the surface,” angled the professor. “Well,
then, clear up this difficulty. If the surface is the mirror, it must
be of no consequence to the ‘essence’ of the mirror what may be found
behind this surface, since what is behind it does not affect the
‘essence’ that is before it, id est, the surface, quae super faciem
est, quia vocatur superficies, facies ea quae supra videtur. Do you
admit that or do you not admit it?”

The poor youth’s hair stood up straighter than ever, as though acted
upon by some magnetic force.

“Do you admit it or do you not admit it?”

“Anything! Whatever you wish, Padre,” was his thought, but he did not
dare to express it from fear of ridicule. That was a dilemma indeed,
and he had never been in a worse one. He had a vague idea that the most
innocent thing could not be admitted to the friars but that they, or
rather their estates and curacies, would get out of it all the results
and advantages imaginable. So his good angel prompted him to deny
everything with all the energy of his soul and refractoriness of his
hair, and he was about to shout a proud nego, for the reason that he
who denies everything does not compromise himself in anything, as a
certain lawyer had once told him; but the evil habit of disregarding
the dictates of one’s own conscience, of having little faith in legal
folk, and of seeking aid from others where one is sufficient unto
himself, was his undoing. His companions, especially Juanito Pelaez,
were making signs to him to admit it, so he let himself be carried away
by his evil destiny and exclaimed, “Concedo, Padre,” in a voice as
faltering as though he were saying, “In manus tuas commendo spiritum
meum.”

“Concedo antecedentum,” echoed the professor, smiling maliciously.
“Ergo, I can scratch the mercury off a looking-glass, put in its place
a piece of bibinka, and we shall still have a mirror, eh? Now what
shall we have?”

The youth gazed at his prompters, but seeing them surprised and
speechless, contracted his features into an expression of bitterest
reproach. “Deus meus, Deus meus, quare dereliquiste me,” said his
troubled eyes, while his lips muttered “Linintikan!” Vainly he coughed,
fumbled at his shirt-bosom, stood first on one foot and then on the
other, but found no answer.

“Come now, what have we?” urged the professor, enjoying the effect of
his reasoning.

“Bibinka!” whispered Juanito Pelaez. “Bibinka!”

“Shut up, you fool!” cried the desperate youth, hoping to get out of
the difficulty by turning it into a complaint.

“Let’s see, Juanito, if you can answer the question for me,” the
professor then said to Pelaez, who was one of his pets.

The latter rose slowly, not without first giving Penitente, who
followed him on the roll, a nudge that meant, “Don’t forget to prompt
me.”

“Nego consequentiam, Padre,” he replied resolutely.

“Aha, then probo consequentiam! Per te, the polished surface
constitutes the ‘essence’ of the mirror—”

“Nego suppositum!” interrupted Juanito, as he felt Placido pulling at
his coat.

“How? Per te—”

“Nego!”

“Ergo, you believe that what is behind affects what is in front?”

“Nego!” the student cried with still more ardor, feeling another jerk
at his coat.

Juanito, or rather Placido, who was prompting him, was unconsciously
adopting Chinese tactics: not to admit the most inoffensive foreigner
in order not to be invaded.

“Then where are we?” asked the professor, somewhat disconcerted, and
looking uneasily at the refractory student. “Does the substance behind
affect, or does it not affect, the surface?”

To this precise and categorical question, a kind of ultimatum, Juanito
did not know what to reply and his coat offered no suggestions. In vain
he made signs to Placido, but Placido himself was in doubt. Juanito
then took advantage of a moment in which the professor was staring at a
student who was cautiously and secretly taking off the shoes that hurt
his feet, to step heavily on Placido’s toes and whisper, “Tell me,
hurry up, tell me!”

“I distinguish—Get out! What an ass you are!” yelled Placido
unreservedly, as he stared with angry eyes and rubbed his hand over his
patent-leather shoe.

The professor heard the cry, stared at the pair, and guessed what had
happened.

“Listen, you meddler,” he addressed Placido, “I wasn’t questioning you,
but since you think you can save others, let’s see if you can save
yourself, salva te ipsum, and decide this question.”

Juanito sat down in content, and as a mark of gratitude stuck out his
tongue at his prompter, who had arisen blushing with shame and
muttering incoherent excuses.

For a moment Padre Millon regarded him as one gloating over a favorite
dish. What a good thing it would be to humiliate and hold up to
ridicule that dudish boy, always smartly dressed, with head erect and
serene look! It would be a deed of charity, so the charitable professor
applied himself to it with all his heart, slowly repeating the
question.

“The book says that the metallic mirrors are made of brass and an alloy
of different metals—is that true or is it not true?”

“So the book says, Padre.”

“Liber dixit, ergo ita est. Don’t pretend that you know more than the
book does. It then adds that the glass mirrors are made of a sheet of
glass whose two surfaces are well polished, one of them having applied
to it an amalgam of tin, nota bene, an amalgam of tin! Is that true?”

“If the book says so, Padre.”

“Is tin a metal?”

“It seems so, Padre. The book says so.”

“It is, it is, and the word amalgam means that it is compounded with
mercury, which is also a metal. Ergo, a glass mirror is a metallic
mirror; ergo, the terms of the distinction are confused; ergo, the
classification is imperfect—how do you explain that, meddler?”

He emphasized the ergos and the familiar “you’s” with indescribable
relish, at the same time winking, as though to say, “You’re done for.”

“It means that, it means that—” stammered Placido.

“It means that you haven’t learned the lesson, you petty meddler, you
don’t understand it yourself, and yet you prompt your neighbor!”

The class took no offense, but on the contrary many thought the epithet
funny and laughed. Placido bit his lips.

“What’s your name?” the professor asked him.

“Placido,” was the curt reply.

“Aha! Placido Penitente, although you look more like Placido the
Prompter—or the Prompted. But, Penitent, I’m going to impose some
penance on you for your promptings.”

Pleased with his play on words, he ordered the youth to recite the
lesson, and the latter, in the state of mind to which he was reduced,
made more than three mistakes. Shaking his head up and down, the
professor slowly opened the register and slowly scanned it while he
called off the names in a low voice.

“Palencia—Palomo—Panganiban—Pedraza—Pelado—Pelaez—Penitents, aha!
Placido Penitente, fifteen unexcused absences—”

Placido started up. “Fifteen absences, Padre?”

“Fifteen unexcused absences,” continued the professor, “so that you
only lack one to be dropped from the roll.”

“Fifteen absences, fifteen absences,” repeated Placido in amazement.
“I’ve never been absent more than four times, and with today, perhaps
five.”

“Jesso, jesso, monseer,” [31] replied the professor, examining the
youth over his gold eye-glasses. “You confess that you have missed five
times, and God knows if you may have missed oftener. Atqui, as I rarely
call the roll, every time I catch any one I put five marks against him;
ergo, how many are five times five? Have you forgotten the
multiplication table? Five times five?”

“Twenty-five.”

“Correct, correct! Thus you’ve still got away with ten, because I have
caught you only three times. Huh, if I had caught you every time—Now,
how many are three times five?”

“Fifteen.”

“Fifteen, right you are!” concluded the professor, closing the
register. “If you miss once more—out of doors with you, get out! Ah,
now a mark for the failure in the daily lesson.”

He again opened the register, sought out the name, and entered the
mark. “Come, only one mark,” he said, “since you hadn’t any before.”

“But, Padre,” exclaimed Placido, restraining himself, “if your
Reverence puts a mark against me for failing in the lesson, your
Reverence owes it to me to erase the one for absence that you have put
against me for today.”

His Reverence made no answer. First he slowly entered the mark, then
contemplated it with his head on one side,—the mark must be
artistic,—closed the register, and asked with great sarcasm, “Abá, and
why so, sir?”

“Because I can’t conceive, Padre, how one can be absent from the class
and at the same time recite the lesson in it. Your Reverence is saying
that to be is not to be.”

“Nakú, a metaphysician, but a rather premature one! So you can’t
conceive of it, eh? Sed patet experientia and contra experientiam
negantem, fusilibus est arguendum, do you understand? And can’t you
conceive, with your philosophical head, that one can be absent from the
class and not know the lesson at the same time? Is it a fact that
absence necessarily implies knowledge? What do you say to that,
philosophaster?”

This last epithet was the drop of water that made the full cup
overflow. Placido enjoyed among his friends the reputation of being a
philosopher, so he lost his patience, threw down his book, arose, and
faced the professor.

“Enough, Padre, enough! Your Reverence can put all the marks against me
that you wish, but you haven’t the right to insult me. Your Reverence
may stay with the class, I can’t stand any more.” Without further
farewell, he stalked away.

The class was astounded; such an assumption of dignity had scarcely
ever been seen, and who would have thought it of Placido Penitente? The
surprised professor bit his lips and shook his head threateningly as he
watched him depart. Then in a trembling voice he began his preachment
on the same old theme, delivered however with more energy and more
eloquence. It dealt with the growing arrogance, the innate ingratitude,
the presumption, the lack of respect for superiors, the pride that the
spirit of darkness infused in the young, the lack of manners, the
absence of courtesy, and so on. From this he passed to coarse jests and
sarcasm over the presumption which some good-for-nothing “prompters”
had of teaching their teachers by establishing an academy for
instruction in Castilian.

“Aha, aha!” he moralized, “those who the day before yesterday scarcely
knew how to say, ‘Yes, Padre,’ ‘No, Padre,’ now want to know more than
those who have grown gray teaching them. He who wishes to learn, will
learn, academies or no academies! Undoubtedly that fellow who has just
gone out is one of those in the project. Castilian is in good hands
with such guardians! When are you going to get the time to attend the
academy if you have scarcely enough to fulfill your duties in the
regular classes? We wish that you may all know Spanish and that you
pronounce it well, so that you won’t split our ear-drums with your
twist of expression and your ‘p’s’; [32] but first business and then
pleasure: finish your studies first, and afterwards learn Castilian,
and all become clerks, if you so wish.”

So he went on with his harangue until the bell rang and the class was
over. The two hundred and thirty-four students, after reciting their
prayers, went out as ignorant as when they went in, but breathing more
freely, as if a great weight had been lifted from them. Each youth had
lost another hour of his life and with it a portion of his dignity and
self-respect, and in exchange there was an increase of discontent, of
aversion to study, of resentment in their hearts. After all this ask
for knowledge, dignity, gratitude!

De nobis, post haec, tristis sententia fertur!

Just as the two hundred and thirty-four spent their class hours, so the
thousands of students who preceded them have spent theirs, and, if
matters do not mend, so will those yet to come spend theirs, and be
brutalized, while wounded dignity and youthful enthusiasm will be
converted into hatred and sloth, like the waves that become polluted
along one part of the shore and roll on one after another, each in
succession depositing a larger sediment of filth. But yet He who from
eternity watches the consequences of a deed develop like a thread
through the loom of the centuries, He who weighs the value of a second
and has ordained for His creatures as an elemental law progress and
development, He, if He is just, will demand a strict accounting from
those who must render it, of the millions of intelligences darkened and
blinded, of human dignity trampled upon in millions of His creatures,
and of the incalculable time lost and effort wasted! And if the
teachings of the Gospel are based on truth, so also will these have to
answer—the millions and millions who do not know how to preserve the
light of their intelligences and their dignity of mind, as the master
demanded an accounting from the cowardly servant for the talent that he
let be taken from him.



CHAPTER XIV

IN THE HOUSE OF THE STUDENTS


The house where Makaraig lived was worth visiting. Large and spacious,
with two entresols provided with elegant gratings, it seemed to be a
school during the first hours of the morning and pandemonium from ten
o’clock on. During the boarders’ recreation hours, from the lower
hallway of the spacious entrance up to the main floor, there was a
bubbling of laughter, shouts, and movement. Boys in scanty clothing
played sipa or practised gymnastic exercises on improvised trapezes,
while on the staircase a fight was in progress between eight or nine
armed with canes, sticks, and ropes, but neither attackers nor attacked
did any great damage, their blows generally falling sidewise upon the
shoulders of the Chinese pedler who was there selling his outlandish
mixtures and indigestible pastries. Crowds of boys surrounded him,
pulled at his already disordered queue, snatched pies from him, haggled
over the prices, and committed a thousand deviltries. The Chinese
yelled, swore, forswore, in all the languages he could jabber, not
omitting his own; he whimpered, laughed, pleaded, put on a smiling face
when an ugly one would not serve, or the reverse.

He cursed them as devils, savages, no kilistanos [33] but that mattered
nothing. A whack would bring his face around smiling, and if the blow
fell only upon his shoulders he would calmly continue his business
transactions, contenting himself with crying out to them that he was
not in the game, but if it struck the flat basket on which were placed
his wares, then he would swear never to come again, as he poured out
upon them all the imprecations and anathemas imaginable. Then the boys
would redouble their efforts to make him rage the more, and when at
last his vocabulary was exhausted and they were satiated with his
fearful mixtures, they paid him religiously, and sent him away happy,
winking, chuckling to himself, and receiving as caresses the light
blows from their canes that the students gave him as tokens of
farewell.

Concerts on the piano and violin, the guitar, and the accordion,
alternated with the continual clashing of blades from the fencing
lessons. Around a long, wide table the students of the Ateneo prepared
their compositions or solved their problems by the side of others
writing to their sweethearts on pink perforated note-paper covered with
drawings. Here one was composing a melodrama at the side of another
practising on the flute, from which he drew wheezy notes. Over there,
the older boys, students in professional courses, who affected silk
socks and embroidered slippers, amused themselves in teasing the
smaller boys by pulling their ears, already red from repeated fillips,
while two or three held down a little fellow who yelled and cried,
defending himself with his feet against being reduced to the condition
in which he was born, kicking and howling. In one room, around a small
table, four were playing revesino with laughter and jokes, to the great
annoyance of another who pretended to be studying his lesson but who
was in reality waiting his turn to play.

Still another came in with exaggerated wonder, scandalized as he
approached the table. “How wicked you are! So early in the morning and
already gambling! Let’s see, let’s see! You fool, take it with the
three of spades!” Closing his book, he too joined in the game.

Cries and blows were heard. Two boys were fighting in the adjoining
room—a lame student who was very sensitive about his infirmity and an
unhappy newcomer from the provinces who was just commencing his
studies. He was working over a treatise on philosophy and reading
innocently in a loud voice, with a wrong accent, the Cartesian
principle: “Cogito, ergo sum!”

The little lame boy (el cojito) took this as an insult and the others
intervened to restore peace, but in reality only to sow discord and
come to blows themselves.

In the dining-room a young man with a can of sardines, a bottle of
wine, and the provisions that he had just brought from his town, was
making heroic efforts to the end that his friends might participate in
his lunch, while they were offering in their turn heroic resistance to
his invitation. Others were bathing on the azotea, playing firemen with
the water from the well, and joining in combats with pails of water, to
the great delight of the spectators.

But the noise and shouts gradually died away with the coming of leading
students, summoned by Makaraig to report to them the progress of the
academy of Castilian. Isagani was cordially greeted, as was also the
Peninsular, Sandoval, who had come to Manila as a government employee
and was finishing his studies, and who had completely identified
himself with the cause of the Filipino students. The barriers that
politics had established between the races had disappeared in the
schoolroom as though dissolved by the zeal of science and youth.

From lack of lyceums and scientific, literary, or political centers,
Sandoval took advantage of all the meetings to cultivate his great
oratorical gifts, delivering speeches and arguing on any subject, to
draw forth applause from his friends and listeners. At that moment the
subject of conversation was the instruction in Castilian, but as
Makaraig had not yet arrived conjecture was still the order of the day.

“What can have happened?”

“What has the General decided?”

“Has he refused the permit?”

“Has Padre Irene or Padre Sibyla won?”

Such were the questions they asked one another, questions that could be
answered only by Makaraig.

Among the young men gathered together there were optimists like Isagani
and Sandoval, who saw the thing already accomplished and talked of
congratulations and praise from the government for the patriotism of
the students—outbursts of optimism that led Juanito Pelaez to claim for
himself a large part of the glory of founding the society.

All this was answered by the pessimist Pecson, a chubby youth with a
wide, clownish grin, who spoke of outside influences, whether the
Bishop A., the Padre B., or the Provincial C., had been consulted or
not, whether or not they had advised that the whole association should
be put in jail—a suggestion that made Juanito Pelaez so uneasy that he
stammered out, “Carambas, don’t you drag me into—”

Sandoval, as a Peninsular and a liberal, became furious at this. “But
pshaw!” he exclaimed, “that is holding a bad opinion of his Excellency!
I know that he’s quite a friar-lover, but in such a matter as this he
won’t let the friars interfere. Will you tell me, Pecson, on what you
base your belief that the General has no judgment of his own?”

“I didn’t say that, Sandoval,” replied Pecson, grinning until he
exposed his wisdom-tooth. “For me the General has his own judgment,
that is, the judgment of all those within his reach. That’s plain!”

“You’re dodging—cite me a fact, cite me a fact!” cried Sandoval. “Let’s
get away from hollow arguments, from empty phrases, and get on the
solid ground of facts,”—this with an elegant gesture. “Facts,
gentlemen, facts! The rest is prejudice—I won’t call it filibusterism.”

Pecson smiled like one of the blessed as he retorted, “There comes the
filibusterism. But can’t we enter into a discussion without resorting
to accusations?”

Sandoval protested in a little extemporaneous speech, again demanding
facts.

“Well, not long ago there was a dispute between some private persons
and certain friars, and the acting Governor rendered a decision that it
should be settled by the Provincial of the Order concerned,” replied
Pecson, again breaking out into a laugh, as though he were dealing with
an insignificant matter, he cited names and dates, and promised
documents that would prove how justice was dispensed.

“But, on what ground, tell me this, on what ground can they refuse
permission for what plainly appears to be extremely useful and
necessary?” asked Sandoval.

Pecson shrugged his shoulders. “It’s that it endangers the integrity of
the fatherland,” he replied in the tone of a notary reading an
allegation.

“That’s pretty good! What has the integrity of the fatherland to do
with the rules of syntax?”

“The Holy Mother Church has learned doctors—what do I know? Perhaps it
is feared that we may come to understand the laws so that we can obey
them. What will become of the Philippines on the day when we understand
one another?”

Sandoval did not relish the dialectic and jesting turn of the
conversation; along that path could rise no speech worth the while.
“Don’t make a joke of things!” he exclaimed. “This is a serious
matter.”

“The Lord deliver me from joking when there are friars concerned!”

“But, on what do you base—”

“On the fact that, the hours for the classes having to come at night,”
continued Pecson in the same tone, as if he were quoting known and
recognized formulas, “there may be invoked as an obstacle the
immorality of the thing, as was done in the case of the school at
Malolos.”

“Another! But don’t the classes of the Academy of Drawing, and the
novenaries and the processions, cover themselves with the mantle of
night?”

“The scheme affects the dignity of the University,” went on the chubby
youth, taking no notice of the question.

“Affects nothing! The University has to accommodate itself to the needs
of the students. And granting that, what is a university then? Is it an
institution to discourage study? Have a few men banded themselves
together in the name of learning and instruction in order to prevent
others from becoming enlightened?”

“The fact is that movements initiated from below are regarded as
discontent—”

“What about projects that come from above?” interpolated one of the
students. “There’s the School of Arts and Trades!”

“Slowly, slowly, gentlemen,” protested Sandoval. “I’m not a
friar-lover, my liberal views being well known, but render unto Caesar
that which is Caesar’s. Of that School of Arts and Trades, of which I
have been the most enthusiastic supporter and the realization of which
I shall greet as the first streak of dawn for these fortunate islands,
of that School of Arts and Trades the friars have taken charge—”

“Or the cat of the canary, which amounts to the same thing,” added
Pecson, in his turn interrupting the speech.

“Get out!” cried Sandoval, enraged at the interruption, which had
caused him to lose the thread of his long, well-rounded sentence. “As
long as we hear nothing bad, let’s not be pessimists, let’s not be
unjust, doubting the liberty and independence of the government.”

Here he entered upon a defense in beautiful phraseology of the
government and its good intentions, a subject that Pecson dared not
break in upon.

“The Spanish government,” he said among other things, “has given you
everything, it has denied you nothing! We had absolutism in Spain and
you had absolutism here; the friars covered our soil with conventos,
and conventos occupy a third part of Manila; in Spain the garrote
prevails and here the garrote is the extreme punishment; we are
Catholics and we have made you Catholics; we were scholastics and
scholasticism sheds its light in your college halls; in short,
gentlemen, we weep when you weep, we suffer when you suffer, we have
the same altars, the same courts, the same punishments, and it is only
just that we should give you our rights and our joys.”

As no one interrupted him, he became more and more enthusiastic, until
he came to speak of the future of the Philippines.

“As I have said, gentlemen, the dawn is not far distant. Spain is now
breaking the eastern sky for her beloved Philippines, and the times are
changing, as I positively know, faster than we imagine. This
government, which, according to you, is vacillating and weak, should be
strengthened by our confidence, that we may make it see that it is the
custodian of our hopes. Let us remind it by our conduct (should it ever
forget itself, which I do not believe can happen) that we have faith in
its good intentions and that it should be guided by no other standard
than justice and the welfare of all the governed. No, gentlemen,” he
went on in a tone more and more declamatory, “we must not admit at all
in this matter the possibility of a consultation with other more or
less hostile entities, as such a supposition would imply our
resignation to the fact. Your conduct up to the present has been frank,
loyal, without vacillation, above suspicion; you have addressed it
simply and directly; the reasons you have presented could not be more
sound; your aim is to lighten the labor of the teachers in the first
years and to facilitate study among the hundreds of students who fill
the college halls and for whom one solitary professor cannot suffice.
If up to the present the petition has not been granted, it has been for
the reason, as I feel sure, that there has been a great deal of
material accumulated, but I predict that the campaign is won, that the
summons of Makaraig is to announce to us the victory, and tomorrow we
shall see our efforts crowned with the applause and appreciation of the
country, and who knows, gentlemen, but that the government may confer
upon you some handsome decoration of merit, benefactors as you are of
the fatherland!”

Enthusiastic applause resounded. All immediately believed in the
triumph, and many in the decoration.

“Let it be remembered, gentlemen,” observed Juanito, “that I was one of
the first to propose it.”

The pessimist Pecson was not so enthusiastic. “Just so we don’t get
that decoration on our ankles,” he remarked, but fortunately for Pelaez
this comment was not heard in the midst of the applause.

When they had quieted down a little, Pecson replied, “Good, good, very
good, but one supposition: if in spite of all that, the General
consults and consults and consults, and afterwards refuses the permit?”

This question fell like a dash of cold water. All turned to Sandoval,
who was taken aback. “Then—” he stammered.

“Then?”

“Then,” he exclaimed in a burst of enthusiasm, still excited by the
applause, “seeing that in writing and in printing it boasts of desiring
your enlightenment, and yet hinders and denies it when called upon to
make it a reality—then, gentlemen, your efforts will not have been in
vain, you will have accomplished what no one else has been able to do.
Make them drop the mask and fling down the gauntlet to you!”

“Bravo, bravo!” cried several enthusiastically.

“Good for Sandoval! Hurrah for the gauntlet!” added others.

“Let them fling down the gauntlet to us!” repeated Pecson disdainfully.
“But afterwards?”

Sandoval seemed to be cut short in his triumph, but with the vivacity
peculiar to his race and his oratorical temperament he had an immediate
reply.

“Afterwards?” he asked. “Afterwards, if none of the Filipinos dare to
accept the challenge, then I, Sandoval, in the name of Spain, will take
up the gauntlet, because such a policy would give the lie to the good
intentions that she has always cherished toward her provinces, and
because he who is thus faithless to the trust reposed in him and abuses
his unlimited authority deserves neither the protection of the
fatherland nor the support of any Spanish citizen!”

The enthusiasm of his hearers broke all bounds. Isagani embraced him,
the others following his example. They talked of the fatherland, of
union, of fraternity, of fidelity. The Filipinos declared that if there
were only Sandovals in Spain all would be Sandovals in the Philippines.
His eyes glistened, and it might well be believed that if at that
moment any kind of gauntlet had been flung at him he would have leaped
upon any kind of horse to ride to death for the Philippines.

The “cold water” alone replied: “Good, that’s very good, Sandoval. I
could also say the same if I were a Peninsular, but not being one, if I
should say one half of what you have, you yourself would take me for a
filibuster.”

Sandoval began a speech in protest, but was interrupted.

“Rejoice, friends, rejoice! Victory!” cried a youth who entered at that
moment and began to embrace everybody.

“Rejoice, friends! Long live the Castilian tongue!”

An outburst of applause greeted this announcement. They fell to
embracing one another and their eyes filled with tears. Pecson alone
preserved his skeptical smile.

The bearer of such good news was Makaraig, the young man at the head of
the movement. This student occupied in that house, by himself, two
rooms, luxuriously furnished, and had his servant and a cochero to look
after his carriage and horses. He was of robust carriage, of refined
manners, fastidiously dressed, and very rich. Although studying law
only that he might have an academic degree, he enjoyed a reputation for
diligence, and as a logician in the scholastic way had no cause to envy
the most frenzied quibblers of the University faculty. Nevertheless he
was not very far behind in regard to modern ideas and progress, for his
fortune enabled him to have all the books and magazines that a watchful
censor was unable to keep out. With these qualifications and his
reputation for courage, his fortunate associations in his earlier
years, and his refined and delicate courtesy, it was not strange that
he should exercise such great influence over his associates and that he
should have been chosen to carry out such a difficult undertaking as
that of the instruction in Castilian.

After the first outburst of enthusiasm, which in youth always takes
hold in such exaggerated forms, since youth finds everything beautiful,
they wanted to be informed how the affair had been managed.

“I saw Padre Irene this morning,” said Makaraig with a certain air of
mystery.

“Hurrah for Padre Irene!” cried an enthusiastic student.

“Padre Irene,” continued Makaraig, “has told me about everything that
took place at Los Baños. It seems that they disputed for at least a
week, he supporting and defending our case against all of them, against
Padre Sibyla, Padre Fernandez, Padre Salvi, the General, the jeweler
Simoun—”

“The jeweler Simoun!” interrupted one of his listeners. “What has that
Jew to do with the affairs of our country? We enrich him by buying—”

“Keep quiet!” admonished another impatiently, anxious to learn how
Padre Irene had been able to overcome such formidable opponents.

“There were even high officials who were opposed to our project, the
Head Secretary, the Civil Governor, Quiroga the Chinaman—”

“Quiroga the Chinaman! The pimp of the—”

“Shut up!”

“At last,” resumed Makaraig, “they were going to pigeonhole the
petition and let it sleep for months and months, when Padre Irene
remembered the Superior Commission of Primary Instruction and proposed,
since the matter concerned the teaching of the Castilian tongue, that
the petition be referred to that body for a report upon it.”

“But that Commission hasn’t been in operation for a long time,”
observed Pecson.

“That’s exactly what they replied to Padre Irene, and he answered that
this was a good opportunity to revive it, and availing himself of the
presence of Don Custodio, one of its members, he proposed on the spot
that a committee should be appointed. Don Custodio’s activity being
known and recognized, he was named as arbiter and the petition is now
in his hands. He promised that he would settle it this month.”

“Hurrah for Don Custodio!”

“But suppose Don Custodio should report unfavorably upon it?” inquired
the pessimist Pecson.

Upon this they had not reckoned, being intoxicated with the thought
that the matter would not be pigeonholed, so they all turned to
Makaraig to learn how it could be arranged.

“The same objection I presented to Padre Irene, but with his sly smile
he said to me: ‘We’ve won a great deal, we have succeeded in getting
the matter on the road to a decision, the opposition sees itself forced
to join battle.’ If we can bring some influence to bear upon Don
Custodio so that he, in accordance with his liberal tendencies, may
report favorably, all is won, for the General showed himself to be
absolutely neutral.”

Makaraig paused, and an impatient listener asked, “How can we influence
him?”

“Padre Irene pointed out to me two ways—”

“Quiroga,” some one suggested.

“Pshaw, great use Quiroga—”

“A fine present.”

“No, that won’t do, for he prides himself upon being incorruptible.”

“Ah, yes, I know!” exclaimed Pecson with a laugh. “Pepay the dancing
girl.”

“Ah, yes, Pepay the dancing girl,” echoed several.

This Pepay was a showy girl, supposed to be a great friend of Don
Custodio. To her resorted the contractors, the employees, the
intriguers, when they wanted to get something from the celebrated
councilor. Juanito Pelaez, who was also a great friend of the dancing
girl, offered to look after the matter, but Isagani shook his head,
saying that it was sufficient that they had made use of Padre Irene and
that it would be going too far to avail themselves of Pepay in such an
affair.

“Show us the other way.”

“The other way is to apply to his attorney and adviser, Señor Pasta,
the oracle before whom Don Custodio bows.”

“I prefer that,” said Isagani. “Señor Pasta is a Filipino, and was a
schoolmate of my uncle’s. But how can we interest him?”

“There’s the quid,” replied Makaraig, looking earnestly at Isagani.
“Señor Pasta has a dancing girl—I mean, a seamstress.”

Isagani again shook his head.

“Don’t be such a puritan,” Juanito Pelaez said to him. “The end
justifies the means! I know the seamstress, Matea, for she has a shop
where a lot of girls work.”

“No, gentlemen,” declared Isagani, “let’s first employ decent methods.
I’ll go to Señor Pasta and, if I don’t accomplish anything, then you
can do what you wish with the dancing girls and seamstresses.”

They had to accept this proposition, agreeing that Isagani should talk
to Señor Pasta that very day, and in the afternoon report to his
associates at the University the result of the interview.



CHAPTER XV

SEÑOR PASTA


Isagani presented himself in the house of the lawyer, one of the most
talented minds in Manila, whom the friars consulted in their great
difficulties. The youth had to wait some time on account of the
numerous clients, but at last his turn came and he entered the office,
or bufete, as it is generally called in the Philippines. The lawyer
received him with a slight cough, looking down furtively at his feet,
but he did not rise or offer a seat, as he went on writing. This gave
Isagani an opportunity for observation and careful study of the lawyer,
who had aged greatly. His hair was gray and his baldness extended over
nearly the whole crown of his head. His countenance was sour and
austere.

There was complete silence in the study, except for the whispers of the
clerks and understudies who were at work in an adjoining room. Their
pens scratched as though quarreling with the paper.

At length the lawyer finished what he was writing, laid down his pen,
raised his head, and, recognizing the youth, let his face light up with
a smile as he extended his hand affectionately.

“Welcome, young man! But sit down, and excuse me, for I didn’t know
that it was you. How is your uncle?”

Isagani took courage, believing that his case would get on well. He
related briefly what had been done, the while studying the effect of
his words. Señor Pasta listened impassively at first and, although he
was informed of the efforts of the students, pretended ignorance, as if
to show that he had nothing to do with such childish matters, but when
he began to suspect what was wanted of him and heard mention of the
Vice-Rector, friars, the Captain-General, a project, and so on, his
face slowly darkened and he finally exclaimed, “This is the land of
projects! But go on, go on!”

Isagani was not yet discouraged. He spoke of the manner in which a
decision was to be reached and concluded with an expression of the
confidence which the young men entertained that he, Señor Pasta, would
intercede in their behalf in case Don Custodio should consult him, as
was to be expected. He did not dare to say would advise, deterred by
the wry face the lawyer put on.

But Señor Pasta had already formed his resolution, and it was not to
mix at all in the affair, either as consulter or consulted. He was
familiar with what had occurred at Los Baños, he knew that there
existed two factions, and that Padre Irene was not the only champion on
the side of the students, nor had he been the one who proposed
submitting the petition to the Commission of Primary Instruction, but
quite the contrary. Padre Irene, Padre Fernandez, the Countess, a
merchant who expected to sell the materials for the new academy, and
the high official who had been citing royal decree after royal decree,
were about to triumph, when Padre Sibyla, wishing to gain time, had
thought of the Commission. All these facts the great lawyer had present
in his mind, so that when Isagani had finished speaking, he determined
to confuse him with evasions, tangle the matter up, and lead the
conversation to other subjects.

“Yes,” he said, pursing his lips and scratching his head, “there is no
one who surpasses me in love for the country and in aspirations toward
progress, but—I can’t compromise myself, I don’t know whether you
clearly understand my position, a position that is very delicate, I
have so many interests, I have to labor within the limits of strict
prudence, it’s a risk—”

The lawyer sought to bewilder the youth with an exuberance of words, so
he went on speaking of laws and decrees, and talked so much that
instead of confusing the youth, he came very near to entangling himself
in a labyrinth of citations.

“In no way do we wish to compromise you,” replied Isagani with great
calmness. “God deliver us from injuring in the least the persons whose
lives are so useful to the rest of the Filipinos! But, as little versed
as I may be in the laws, royal decrees, writs, and resolutions that
obtain in this country, I can’t believe that there can be any harm in
furthering the high purposes of the government, in trying to secure a
proper interpretation of these purposes. We are seeking the same end
and differ only about the means.”

The lawyer smiled, for the youth had allowed himself to wander away
from the subject, and there where the former was going to entangle him
he had already entangled himself.

“That’s exactly the quid, as is vulgarly said. It’s clear that it is
laudable to aid the government, when one aids it submissively,
following out its desires and the true spirit of the laws in agreement
with the just beliefs of the governing powers, and when not in
contradiction to the fundamental and general way of thinking of the
persons to whom is intrusted the common welfare of the individuals that
form a social organism. Therefore, it is criminal, it is punishable,
because it is offensive to the high principle of authority, to attempt
any action contrary to its initiative, even supposing it to be better
than the governmental proposition, because such action would injure its
prestige, which is the elementary basis upon which all colonial
edifices rest.”

Confident that this broadside had at least stunned Isagani, the old
lawyer fell back in his armchair, outwardly very serious, but laughing
to himself.

Isagani, however, ventured to reply. “I should think that governments,
the more they are threatened, would be all the more careful to seek
bases that are impregnable. The basis of prestige for colonial
governments is the weakest of all, since it does not depend upon
themselves but upon the consent of the governed, while the latter are
willing to recognize it. The basis of justice or reason would seem to
be the most durable.”

The lawyer raised his head. How was this—did that youth dare to reply
and argue with him, him, Señor Pasta? Was he not yet bewildered with
his big words?

“Young man, you must put those considerations aside, for they are
dangerous,” he declared with a wave of his hand. “What I advise is that
you let the government attend to its own business.”

“Governments are established for the welfare of the peoples, and in
order to accomplish this purpose properly they have to follow the
suggestions of the citizens, who are the ones best qualified to
understand their own needs.”

“Those who constitute the government are also citizens, and among the
most enlightened.”

“But, being men, they are fallible, and ought not to disregard the
opinions of others.”

“They must be trusted, they have to attend to everything.”

“There is a Spanish proverb which says, ‘No tears, no milk,’ in other
words, ‘To him who does not ask, nothing is given.’ ”

“Quite the reverse,” replied the lawyer with a sarcastic smile; “with
the government exactly the reverse occurs—”

But he suddenly checked himself, as if he had said too much and wished
to correct his imprudence. “The government has given us things that we
have not asked for, and that we could not ask for, because to ask—to
ask, presupposes that it is in some way incompetent and consequently is
not performing its functions. To suggest to it a course of action, to
try to guide it, when not really antagonizing it, is to presuppose that
it is capable of erring, and as I have already said to you such
suppositions are menaces to the existence of colonial governments. The
common crowd overlooks this and the young men who set to work
thoughtlessly do not know, do not comprehend, do not try to comprehend
the counter-effect of asking, the menace to order there is in that
idea—”

“Pardon me,” interrupted Isagani, offended by the arguments the jurist
was using with him, “but when by legal methods people ask a government
for something, it is because they think it good and disposed to grant a
blessing, and such action, instead of irritating it, should flatter it
—to the mother one appeals, never to the stepmother. The government, in
my humble opinion, is not an omniscient being that can see and
anticipate everything, and even if it could, it ought not to feel
offended, for here you have the church itself doing nothing but asking
and begging of God, who sees and knows everything, and you yourself ask
and demand many things in the courts of this same government, yet
neither God nor the courts have yet taken offense. Every one realizes
that the government, being the human institution that it is, needs the
support of all the people, it needs to be made to see and feel the
reality of things. You yourself are not convinced of the truth of your
objection, you yourself know that it is a tyrannical and despotic
government which, in order to make a display of force and independence,
denies everything through fear or distrust, and that the tyrannized and
enslaved peoples are the only ones whose duty it is never to ask for
anything. A people that hates its government ought to ask for nothing
but that it abdicate its power.”

The old lawyer grimaced and shook his head from side to side, in sign
of discontent, while he rubbed his hand over his bald pate and said in
a tone of condescending pity: “Ahem! those are bad doctrines, bad
theories, ahem! How plain it is that you are young and inexperienced in
life. Look what is happening with the inexperienced young men who in
Madrid are asking for so many reforms. They are accused of
filibusterism, many of them don’t dare return here, and yet, what are
they asking for? Things holy, ancient, and recognized as quite
harmless. But there are matters that can’t be explained, they’re so
delicate. Let’s see—I confess to you that there are other reasons
besides those expressed that might lead a sensible government to deny
systematically the wishes of the people—no—but it may happen that we
find ourselves under rulers so fatuous and ridiculous—but there are
always other reasons, even though what is asked be quite just—different
governments encounter different conditions—”

The old man hesitated, stared fixedly at Isagani, and then with a
sudden resolution made a sign with his hand as though he would dispel
some idea.

“I can guess what you mean,” said Isagani, smiling sadly. “You mean
that a colonial government, for the very reason that it is imperfectly
constituted and that it is based on premises—”

“No, no, not that, no!” quickly interrupted the old lawyer, as he
sought for something among his papers. “No, I meant—but where are my
spectacles?”

“There they are,” replied Isagani.

The old man put them on and pretended to look over some papers, but
seeing that the youth was waiting, he mumbled, “I wanted to tell you
something, I wanted to say—but it has slipped from my mind. You
interrupted me in your eagerness—but it was an insignificant matter. If
you only knew what a whirl my head is in, I have so much to do!”

Isagani understood that he was being dismissed. “So,” he said, rising,
“we—”

“Ah, you will do well to leave the matter in the hands of the
government, which will settle it as it sees fit. You say that the
Vice-Rector is opposed to the teaching of Castilian. Perhaps he may be,
not as to the fact but as to the form. It is said that the Rector who
is on his way will bring a project for reform in education. Wait a
while, give time a chance, apply yourself to your studies as the
examinations are near, and—carambas!—you who already speak Castilian
and express yourself easily, what are you bothering yourself about?
What interest have you in seeing it specially taught? Surely Padre
Florentino thinks as I do! Give him my regards.”

“My uncle,” replied Isagani, “has always admonished me to think of
others as much as of myself. I didn’t come for myself, I came in the
name of those who are in worse condition.”

“What the devil! Let them do as you have done, let them singe their
eyebrows studying and come to be bald like myself, stuffing whole
paragraphs into their memories! I believe that if you talk Spanish it
is because you have studied it—you’re not of Manila or of Spanish
parents! Then let them learn it as you have, and do as I have done:
I’ve been a servant to all the friars, I’ve prepared their chocolate,
and while with my right hand I stirred it, with the left I held a
grammar, I learned, and, thank God! have never needed other teachers or
academies or permits from the government. Believe me, he who wishes to
learn, learns and becomes wise!”

“But how many among those who wish to learn come to be what you are?
One in ten thousand, and more!”

“Pish! Why any more?” retorted the old man, shrugging his shoulders.
“There are too many lawyers now, many of them become mere clerks.
Doctors? They insult and abuse one another, and even kill each other in
competition for a patient. Laborers, sir, laborers, are what we need,
for agriculture!”

Isagani realized that he was losing time, but still could not forbear
replying: “Undoubtedly, there are many doctors and lawyers, but I won’t
say there are too many, since we have towns that lack them entirely,
and if they do abound in quantity, perhaps they are deficient in
quality. Since the young men can’t be prevented from studying, and no
other professions are open to us, why let them waste their time and
effort? And if the instruction, deficient as it is, does not keep many
from becoming lawyers and doctors, if we must finally have them, why
not have good ones? After all, even if the sole wish is to make the
country a country of farmers and laborers, and condemn in it all
intellectual activity, I don’t see any evil in enlightening those same
farmers and laborers, in giving them at least an education that will
aid them in perfecting themselves and in perfecting their work, in
placing them in a condition to understand many things of which they are
at present ignorant.”

“Bah, bah, bah!” exclaimed the lawyer, drawing circles in the air with
his hand to dispel the ideas suggested. “To be a good farmer no great
amount of rhetoric is needed. Dreams, illusions, fancies! Eh, will you
take a piece of advice?”

He arose and placed his hand affectionately on the youth’s shoulder, as
he continued: “I’m going to give you one, and a very good one, because
I see that you are intelligent and the advice will not be wasted.
You’re going to study medicine? Well, confine yourself to learning how
to put on plasters and apply leeches, and don’t ever try to improve or
impair the condition of your kind. When you become a licentiate, marry
a rich and devout girl, try to make cures and charge well, shun
everything that has any relation to the general state of the country,
attend mass, confession, and communion when the rest do, and you will
see afterwards how you will thank me, and I shall see it, if I am still
alive. Always remember that charity begins at home, for man ought not
to seek on earth more than the greatest amount of happiness for
himself, as Bentham says. If you involve yourself in quixotisms you
will have no career, nor will you get married, nor will you ever amount
to anything. All will abandon you, your own countrymen will be the
first to laugh at your simplicity. Believe me, you will remember me and
see that I am right, when you have gray hairs like myself, gray hairs
such as these!”

Here the old lawyer stroked his scanty white hair, as he smiled sadly
and shook his head.

“When I have gray hairs like those, sir,” replied Isagani with equal
sadness, “and turn my gaze back over my past and see that I have worked
only for myself, without having done what I plainly could and should
have done for the country that has given me everything, for the
citizens that have helped me to live—then, sir, every gray hair will be
a thorn, and instead of rejoicing, they will shame me!”

So saying, he took his leave with a profound bow. The lawyer remained
motionless in his place, with an amazed look on his face. He listened
to the footfalls that gradually died away, then resumed his seat.

“Poor boy!” he murmured, “similar thoughts also crossed my mind once!
What more could any one desire than to be able to say: ‘I have done
this for the good of the fatherland, I have consecrated my life to the
welfare of others!’ A crown of laurel, steeped in aloes, dry leaves
that cover thorns and worms! That is not life, that does not get us our
daily bread, nor does it bring us honors— the laurel would hardly serve
for a salad, nor produce ease, nor aid us in winning lawsuits, but
quite the reverse! Every country has its code of ethics, as it has its
climate and its diseases, different from the climate and the diseases
of other countries.”

After a pause, he added: “Poor boy! If all should think and act as he
does, I don’t say but that—Poor boy! Poor Florentino!”



CHAPTER XVI

THE TRIBULATIONS OF A CHINESE


In the evening of that same Saturday, Quiroga, the Chinese, who aspired
to the creation of a consulate for his nation, gave a dinner in the
rooms over his bazaar, located in the Escolta. His feast was well
attended: friars, government employees, soldiers, merchants, all of
them his customers, partners or patrons, were to be seen there, for his
store supplied the curates and the conventos with all their
necessities, he accepted the chits of all the employees, and he had
servants who were discreet, prompt, and complaisant. The friars
themselves did not disdain to pass whole hours in his store, sometimes
in view of the public, sometimes in the chambers with agreeable
company.

That night, then, the sala presented a curious aspect, being filled
with friars and clerks seated on Vienna chairs, stools of black wood,
and marble benches of Cantonese origin, before little square tables,
playing cards or conversing among themselves, under the brilliant glare
of the gilt chandeliers or the subdued light of the Chinese lanterns,
which were brilliantly decorated with long silken tassels. On the walls
there was a lamentable medley of landscapes in dim and gaudy colors,
painted in Canton or Hongkong, mingled with tawdry chromos of odalisks,
half-nude women, effeminate lithographs of Christ, the deaths of the
just and of the sinners—made by Jewish houses in Germany to be sold in
the Catholic countries. Nor were there lacking the Chinese prints on
red paper representing a man seated, of venerable aspect, with a calm,
smiling face, behind whom stood a servant, ugly, horrible, diabolical,
threatening, armed with a lance having a wide, keen blade. Among the
Indians some call this figure Mohammed, others Santiago, [34] we do not
know why, nor do the Chinese themselves give a very clear explanation
of this popular pair. The pop of champagne corks, the rattle of
glasses, laughter, cigar smoke, and that odor peculiar to a Chinese
habitation—a mixture of punk, opium, and dried fruits—completed the
collection.

Dressed as a Chinese mandarin in a blue-tasseled cap, Quiroga moved
from room to room, stiff and straight, but casting watchful glances
here and there as though to assure himself that nothing was being
stolen. Yet in spite of this natural distrust, he exchanged handshakes
with each guest, greeted some with a smile sagacious and humble, others
with a patronizing air, and still others with a certain shrewd look
that seemed to say, “I know! You didn’t come on my account, you came
for the dinner!”

And Quiroga was right! That fat gentleman who is now praising him and
speaking of the advisability of a Chinese consulate in Manila,
intimating that to manage it there could be no one but Quiroga, is the
Señor Gonzalez who hides behind the pseudonym Pitilí when he attacks
Chinese immigration through the columns of the newspapers. That other,
an elderly man who closely examines the lamps, pictures, and other
furnishings with grimaces and ejaculations of disdain, is Don Timoteo
Pelaez, Juanito’s father, a merchant who inveighs against the Chinese
competition that is ruining his business. The one over there, that
thin, brown individual with a sharp look and a pale smile, is the
celebrated originator of the dispute over Mexican pesos, which so
troubled one of Quiroga’s protéges: that government clerk is regarded
in Manila as very clever. That one farther on, he of the frowning look
and unkempt mustache, is a government official who passes for a most
meritorious fellow because he has the courage to speak ill of the
business in lottery tickets carried on between Quiroga and an exalted
dame in Manila society. The fact is that two thirds of the tickets go
to China and the few that are left in Manila are sold at a premium of a
half-real. The honorable gentleman entertains the conviction that some
day he will draw the first prize, and is in a rage at finding himself
confronted with such tricks.

The dinner, meanwhile, was drawing to an end. From the dining-room
floated into the sala snatches of toasts, interruptions, bursts and
ripples of laughter. The name of Quiroga was often heard mingled with
the words “consul,” “equality,” “justice.” The amphitryon himself did
not eat European dishes, so he contented himself with drinking a glass
of wine with his guests from time to time, promising to dine with those
who were not seated at the first table.

Simoun, who was present, having already dined, was in the sala talking
with some merchants, who were complaining of business conditions:
everything was going wrong, trade was paralyzed, the European exchanges
were exorbitantly high. They sought information from the jeweler or
insinuated to him a few ideas, with the hope that these would be
communicated to the Captain-General. To all the remedies suggested
Simoun responded with a sarcastic and unfeeling exclamation about
nonsense, until one of them in exasperation asked him for his opinion.

“My opinion?” he retorted. “Study how other nations prosper, and then
do as they do.”

“And why do they prosper, Señor Simoun?”

Simoun replied with a shrug of his shoulders.

“The port works, which weigh so heavily upon commerce, and the port not
yet completed!” sighed Don Timoteo Pelaez. “A Penelope’s web, as my son
says, that is spun and unspun. The taxes—”

“You complaining!” exclaimed another. “Just as the General has decreed
the destruction of houses of light materials! [35] And you with a
shipment of galvanized iron!”

“Yes,” rejoined Don Timoteo, “but look what that decree cost me! Then,
the destruction will not be carried out for a month, not until Lent
begins, and other shipments may arrive. I would have wished them
destroyed right away, but—Besides, what are the owners of those houses
going to buy from me if they are all poor, all equally beggars?”

“You can always buy up their shacks for a trifle.”

“And afterwards have the decree revoked and sell them back at double
the price—that’s business!”

Simoun smiled his frigid smile. Seeing Quiroga approach, he left the
querulous merchants to greet the future consul, who on catching sight
of him lost his satisfied expression and assigned a countenance like
those of the merchants, while he bent almost double.

Quiroga respected the jeweler greatly, not only because he knew him to
be very wealthy, but also on account of his rumored influence with the
Captain-General. It was reported that Simoun favored Quiroga’s
ambitions, that he was an advocate for the consulate, and a certain
newspaper hostile to the Chinese had alluded to him in many
paraphrases, veiled allusions, and suspension points, in the celebrated
controversy with another sheet that was favorable to the queued folk.
Some prudent persons added with winks and half-uttered words that his
Black Eminence was advising the General to avail himself of the Chinese
in order to humble the tenacious pride of the natives.

“To hold the people in subjection,” he was reported to have said,
“there’s nothing like humiliating them and humbling them in their own
eyes.”

To this end an opportunity had soon presented itself. The guilds of
mestizos and natives were continually watching one another, venting
their bellicose spirits and their activities in jealousy and distrust.
At mass one day the gobernadorcillo of the natives was seated on a
bench to the right, and, being extremely thin, happened to cross one of
his legs over the other, thus adopting a nonchalant attitude, in order
to expose his thighs more and display his pretty shoes. The
gobernadorcillo of the guild of mestizos, who was seated on the
opposite bench, as he had bunions, and could not cross his legs on
account of his obesity, spread his legs wide apart to expose a plain
waistcoat adorned with a beautiful gold chain set with diamonds. The
two cliques comprehended these maneuvers and joined battle. On the
following Sunday all the mestizos, even the thinnest, had large
paunches and spread their legs wide apart as though on horseback, while
the natives placed one leg over the other, even the fattest, there
being one cabeza de barangay who turned a somersault. Seeing these
movements, the Chinese all adopted their own peculiar attitude, that of
sitting as they do in their shops, with one leg drawn back and upward,
the other swinging loose. There resulted protests and petitions, the
police rushed to arms ready to start a civil war, the curates rejoiced,
the Spaniards were amused and made money out of everybody, until the
General settled the quarrel by ordering that every one should sit as
the Chinese did, since they were the heaviest contributors, even though
they were not the best Catholics. The difficulty for the mestizos and
natives then was that their trousers were too tight to permit of their
imitating the Chinese. But to make the intention of humiliating them
the more evident, the measure was carried out with great pomp and
ceremony, the church being surrounded by a troop of cavalry, while all
those within were sweating. The matter was carried to the Cortes, but
it was repeated that the Chinese, as the ones who paid, should have
their way in the religious ceremonies, even though they apostatized and
laughed at Christianity immediately after. The natives and the mestizos
had to be content, learning thus not to waste time over such fatuity.
[36]

Quiroga, with his smooth tongue and humble smile, was lavishly and
flatteringly attentive to Simoun. His voice was caressing and his bows
numerous, but the jeweler cut his blandishments short by asking
brusquely:

“Did the bracelets suit her?”

At this question all Quiroga’s liveliness vanished like a dream. His
caressing voice became plaintive; he bowed lower, gave the Chinese
salutation of raising his clasped hands to the height of his face, and
groaned: “Ah, Señor Simoun! I’m lost, I’m ruined!” [37]

“How, Quiroga, lost and ruined when you have so many bottles of
champagne and so many guests?”

Quiroga closed his eyes and made a grimace. Yes, the affair of that
afternoon, that affair of the bracelets, had ruined him. Simoun smiled,
for when a Chinese merchant complains it is because all is going well,
and when he makes a show that things are booming it is quite certain
that he is planning an assignment or flight to his own country.

“You didn’t know that I’m lost, I’m ruined? Ah, Señor Simoun, I’m
busted!” To make his condition plainer, he illustrated the word by
making a movement as though he were falling in collapse.

Simoun wanted to laugh, but restrained himself and said that he knew
nothing, nothing at all, as Quiroga led him to a room and closed the
door. He then explained the cause of his misfortune.

Three diamond bracelets that he had secured from Simoun on pretense of
showing them to his wife were not for her, a poor native shut up in her
room like a Chinese woman, but for a beautiful and charming lady, the
friend of a powerful man, whose influence was needed by him in a
certain deal in which he could clear some six thousand pesos. As he did
not understand feminine tastes and wished to be gallant, the Chinese
had asked for the three finest bracelets the jeweler had, each priced
at three to four thousand pesos. With affected simplicity and his most
caressing smile, Quiroga had begged the lady to select the one she
liked best, and the lady, more simple and caressing still, had declared
that she liked all three, and had kept them.

Simoun burst out into laughter.

“Ah, sir, I’m lost, I’m ruined!” cried the Chinese, slapping himself
lightly with his delicate hands; but the jeweler continued his
laughter.

“Ugh, bad people, surely not a real lady,” went on the Chinaman,
shaking his head in disgust. “What! She has no decency, while me, a
Chinaman, me always polite! Ah, surely she not a real lady—a cigarrera
has more decency!”

“They’ve caught you, they’ve caught you!” exclaimed Simoun, poking him
in the chest.

“And everybody’s asking for loans and never pays—what about that?
Clerks, officials, lieutenants, soldiers—” he checked them off on his
long-nailed fingers—“ah, Señor Simoun, I’m lost, I’m busted!”

“Get out with your complaints,” said Simoun. “I’ve saved you from many
officials that wanted money from you. I’ve lent it to them so that they
wouldn’t bother you, even when I knew that they couldn’t pay.”

“But, Señor Simoun, you lend to officials; I lend to women, sailors,
everybody.”

“I bet you get your money back.”

“Me, money back? Ah, surely you don’t understand! When it’s lost in
gambling they never pay. Besides, you have a consul, you can force
them, but I haven’t.”

Simoun became thoughtful. “Listen, Quiroga,” he said, somewhat
abstractedly, “I’ll undertake to collect what the officers and sailors
owe you. Give me their notes.”

Quiroga again fell to whining: they had never given him any notes.

“When they come to you asking for money, send them to me. I want to
help you.”

The grateful Quiroga thanked him, but soon fell to lamenting again
about the bracelets. “A cigarrera wouldn’t be so shameless!” he
repeated.

“The devil!” exclaimed Simoun, looking askance at the Chinese, as
though studying him. “Exactly when I need the money and thought that
you could pay me! But it can all be arranged, as I don’t want you to
fail for such a small amount. Come, a favor, and I’ll reduce to seven
the nine thousand pesos you owe me. You can get anything you wish
through the Customs—boxes of lamps, iron, copper, glassware, Mexican
pesos—you furnish arms to the conventos, don’t you?”

The Chinese nodded affirmation, but remarked that he had to do a good
deal of bribing. “I furnish the padres everything!”

“Well, then,” added Simoun in a low voice, “I need you to get in for me
some boxes of rifles that arrived this evening. I want you to keep them
in your warehouse; there isn’t room for all of them in my house.”

Quiroga began to show symptoms of fright.

“Don’t get scared, you don’t run any risk. These rifles are to be
concealed, a few at a time, in various dwellings, then a search will be
instituted, and many people will be sent to prison. You and I can make
a haul getting them set free. Understand me?”

Quiroga wavered, for he was afraid of firearms. In his desk he had an
empty revolver that he never touched without turning his head away and
closing his eyes.

“If you can’t do it, I’ll have to apply to some one else, but then I’ll
need the nine thousand pesos to cross their palms and shut their eyes.”

“All right, all right!” Quiroga finally agreed. “But many people will
be arrested? There’ll be a search, eh?”

When Quiroga and Simoun returned to the sala they found there, in
animated conversation, those who had finished their dinner, for the
champagne had loosened their tongues and stirred their brains. They
were talking rather freely.

In a group where there were a number of government clerks, some ladies,
and Don Custodio, the topic was a commission sent to India to make
certain investigations about footwear for the soldiers.

“Who compose it?” asked an elderly lady.

“A colonel, two other officers, and his Excellency’s nephew.”

“Four?” rejoined a clerk. “What a commission! Suppose they disagree—are
they competent?”

“That’s what I asked,” replied a clerk. “It’s said that one civilian
ought to go, one who has no military prejudices—a shoemaker, for
instance.”

“That’s right,” added an importer of shoes, “but it wouldn’t do to send
an Indian or a Chinaman, and the only Peninsular shoemaker demanded
such large fees—”

“But why do they have to make any investigations about footwear?”
inquired the elderly lady. “It isn’t for the Peninsular artillerymen.
The Indian soldiers can go barefoot, as they do in their towns.” [38]

“Exactly so, and the treasury would save more,” corroborated another
lady, a widow who was not satisfied with her pension.

“But you must remember,” remarked another in the group, a friend of the
officers on the commission, “that while it’s true they go barefoot in
the towns, it’s not the same as moving about under orders in the
service. They can’t choose the hour, nor the road, nor rest when they
wish. Remember, madam, that, with the noonday sun overhead and the
earth below baking like an oven, they have to march over sandy
stretches, where there are stones, the sun above and fire below,
bullets in front—”

“It’s only a question of getting used to it!”

“Like the donkey that got used to not eating! In our present campaign
the greater part of our losses have been due to wounds on the soles of
the feet. Remember the donkey, madam, remember the donkey!”

“But, my dear sir,” retorted the lady, “look how much money is wasted
on shoe-leather. There’s enough to pension many widows and orphans in
order to maintain our prestige. Don’t smile, for I’m not talking about
myself, and I have my pension, even though a very small one,
insignificant considering the services my husband rendered, but I’m
talking of others who are dragging out miserable lives! It’s not right
that after so much persuasion to come and so many hardships in crossing
the sea they should end here by dying of hunger. What you say about the
soldiers may be true, but the fact is that I’ve been in the country
more than three years, and I haven’t seen any soldier limping.”

“In that I agree with the lady,” said her neighbor. “Why issue them
shoes when they were born without them?”

“And why shirts?”

“And why trousers?”

“Just calculate what we should economize on soldiers clothed only in
their skins!” concluded he who was defending the army.

In another group the conversation was more heated. Ben-Zayb was talking
and declaiming, while Padre Camorra, as usual, was constantly
interrupting him. The friar-journalist, in spite of his respect for the
cowled gentry, was always at loggerheads with Padre Camorra, whom he
regarded as a silly half-friar, thus giving himself the appearance of
being independent and refuting the accusations of those who called him
Fray Ibañez. Padre Camorra liked his adversary, as the latter was the
only person who would take seriously what he styled his arguments. They
were discussing magnetism, spiritualism, magic, and the like. Their
words flew through the air like the knives and balls of jugglers,
tossed back and forth from one to the other.

That year great attention had been attracted in the Quiapo fair by a
head, wrongly called a sphinx, exhibited by Mr. Leeds, an American.
Glaring advertisements covered the walls of the houses, mysterious and
funereal, to excite the curiosity of the public. Neither Ben-Zayb nor
any of the padres had yet seen it; Juanito Pelaez was the only one who
had, and he was describing his wonderment to the party.

Ben-Zayb, as a journalist, looked for a natural explanation. Padre
Camorra talked of the devil, Padre Irene smiled, Padre Salvi remained
grave.

“But, Padre, the devil doesn’t need to come—we are sufficient to damn
ourselves—”

“It can’t be explained any other way.”

“If science—”

“Get out with science, puñales!”

“But, listen to me and I’ll convince you. It’s all a question of
optics. I haven’t yet seen the head nor do I know how it looks, but
this gentleman”—indicating Juanito Pelaez—“tells us that it does not
look like the talking heads that are usually exhibited. So be it! But
the principle is the same—it’s all a question of optics. Wait! A mirror
is placed thus, another mirror behind it, the image is reflected—I say,
it is purely a problem in physics.”

Taking down from the walls several mirrors, he arranged them, turned
them round and round, but, not getting the desired result, concluded:
“As I say, it’s nothing more or less than a question of optics.”

“But what do you want mirrors for, if Juanito tells us that the head is
inside a box placed on the table? I see in it spiritualism, because the
spiritualists always make use of tables, and I think that Padre Salvi,
as the ecclesiastical governor, ought to prohibit the exhibition.”

Padre Salvi remained silent, saying neither yes nor no.

“In order to learn if there are devils or mirrors inside it,” suggested
Simoun, “the best thing would be for you to go and see the famous
sphinx.”

The proposal was a good one, so it was accepted, although Padre Salvi
and Don Custodio showed some repugnance. They at a fair, to rub
shoulders with the public, to see sphinxes and talking heads! What
would the natives say? These might take them for mere men, endowed with
the same passions and weaknesses as others. But Ben-Zayb, with his
journalistic ingenuity, promised to request Mr. Leeds not to admit the
public while they were inside. They would be honoring him sufficiently
by the visit not to admit of his refusal, and besides he would not
charge any admission fee. To give a show of probability to this, he
concluded: “Because, remember, if I should expose the trick of the
mirrors to the public, it would ruin the poor American’s business.”
Ben-Zayb was a conscientious individual.

About a dozen set out, among them our acquaintances, Padres Salvi,
Camorra, and Irene, Don Custodio, Ben-Zayb, and Juanito Pelaez. Their
carriages set them down at the entrance to the Quiapo Plaza.



CHAPTER XVII

THE QUIAPO FAIR


It was a beautiful night and the plaza presented a most animated
aspect. Taking advantage of the freshness of the breeze and the
splendor of the January moon, the people filled the fair to see, be
seen, and amuse themselves. The music of the cosmoramas and the lights
of the lanterns gave life and merriment to every one. Long rows of
booths, brilliant with tinsel and gauds, exposed to view clusters of
balls, masks strung by the eyes, tin toys, trains, carts, mechanical
horses, carriages, steam-engines with diminutive boilers, Lilliputian
tableware of porcelain, pine Nativities, dolls both foreign and
domestic, the former red and smiling, the latter sad and pensive like
little ladies beside gigantic children. The beating of drums, the roar
of tin horns, the wheezy music of the accordions and the hand-organs,
all mingled in a carnival concert, amid the coming and going of the
crowd, pushing, stumbling over one another, with their faces turned
toward the booths, so that the collisions were frequent and often
amusing. The carriages were forced to move slowly, with the tabí of the
cocheros repeated every moment. Met and mingled government clerks,
soldiers, friars, students, Chinese, girls with their mammas or aunts,
all greeting, signaling, calling to one another merrily.

Padre Camorra was in the seventh heaven at the sight of so many pretty
girls. He stopped, looked back, nudged Ben-Zayb, chuckled and swore,
saying, “And that one, and that one, my ink-slinger? And that one over
there, what say you?” In his contentment he even fell to using the
familiar tu toward his friend and adversary. Padre Salvi stared at him
from time to time, but he took little note of Padre Salvi. On the
contrary, he pretended to stumble so that he might brush against the
girls, he winked and made eyes at them.

“Puñales!” he kept saying to himself. “When shall I be the curate of
Quiapo?”

Suddenly Ben-Zayb let go an oath, jumped aside, and slapped his hand on
his arm; Padre Camorra in his excess of enthusiasm had pinched him.
They were approaching a dazzling señorita who was attracting the
attention of the whole plaza, and Padre Camorra, unable to restrain his
delight, had taken Ben-Zayb’s arm as a substitute for the girl’s.

It was Paulita Gomez, the prettiest of the pretty, in company with
Isagani, followed by Doña Victorina. The young woman was resplendent in
her beauty: all stopped and craned their necks, while they ceased their
conversation and followed her with their eyes—even Doña Victorina was
respectfully saluted.

Paulita was arrayed in a rich camisa and pañuelo of embroidered piña,
different from those she had worn that morning to the church. The gauzy
texture of the piña set off her shapely head, and the Indians who saw
her compared her to the moon surrounded by fleecy clouds. A silk
rose-colored skirt, caught up in rich and graceful folds by her little
hand, gave majesty to her erect figure, the movement of which,
harmonizing with her curving neck, displayed all the triumphs of vanity
and satisfied coquetry. Isagani appeared to be rather disgusted, for so
many curious eyes fixed upon the beauty of his sweetheart annoyed him.
The stares seemed to him robbery and the girl’s smiles faithlessness.

Juanito saw her and his hump increased when he spoke to her. Paulita
replied negligently, while Doña Victorina called to him, for Juanito
was her favorite, she preferring him to Isagani.

“What a girl, what a girl!” muttered the entranced Padre Camorra.

“Come, Padre, pinch yourself and let me alone,” said Ben-Zayb
fretfully.

“What a girl, what a girl!” repeated the friar. “And she has for a
sweetheart a pupil of mine, the boy I had the quarrel with.”

“Just my luck that she’s not of my town,” he added, after turning his
head several times to follow her with his looks. He was even tempted to
leave his companions to follow the girl, and Ben-Zayb had difficulty in
dissuading him. Paulita’s beautiful figure moved on, her graceful
little head nodding with inborn coquetry.

Our promenaders kept on their way, not without sighs on the part of the
friar-artilleryman, until they reached a booth surrounded by
sightseers, who quickly made way for them. It was a shop of little
wooden figures, of local manufacture, representing in all shapes and
sizes the costumes, races, and occupations of the country: Indians,
Spaniards, Chinese, mestizos, friars, clergymen, government clerks,
gobernadorcillos, students, soldiers, and so on.

Whether the artists had more affection for the priests, the folds of
whose habits were better suited to their esthetic purposes, or whether
the friars, holding such an important place in Philippine life, engaged
the attention of the sculptor more, the fact was that, for one cause or
another, images of them abounded, well-turned and finished,
representing them in the sublimest moments of their lives—the opposite
of what is done in Europe, where they are pictured as sleeping on casks
of wine, playing cards, emptying tankards, rousing themselves to
gaiety, or patting the cheeks of a buxom girl. No, the friars of the
Philippines were different: elegant, handsome, well-dressed, their
tonsures neatly shaven, their features symmetrical and serene, their
gaze meditative, their expression saintly, somewhat rosy-cheeked, cane
in hand and patent-leather shoes on their feet, inviting adoration and
a place in a glass case. Instead of the symbols of gluttony and
incontinence of their brethren in Europe, those of Manila carried the
book, the crucifix, and the palm of martyrdom; instead of kissing the
simple country lasses, those of Manila gravely extended the hand to be
kissed by children and grown men doubled over almost to kneeling;
instead of the full refectory and dining-hall, their stage in Europe,
in Manila they had the oratory, the study-table; instead of the
mendicant friar who goes from door to door with his donkey and sack,
begging alms, the friars of the Philippines scattered gold from full
hands among the miserable Indians.

“Look, here’s Padre Camorra!” exclaimed Ben-Zayb, upon whom the effect
of the champagne still lingered. He pointed to a picture of a lean
friar of thoughtful mien who was seated at a table with his head
resting on the palm of his hand, apparently writing a sermon by the
light of a lamp. The contrast suggested drew laughter from the crowd.

Padre Camorra, who had already forgotten about Paulita, saw what was
meant and laughing his clownish laugh, asked in turn, “Whom does this
other figure resemble, Ben-Zayb?”

It was an old woman with one eye, with disheveled hair, seated on the
ground like an Indian idol, ironing clothes. The sad-iron was carefully
imitated, being of copper with coals of red tinsel and smoke-wreaths of
dirty twisted cotton.

“Eh, Ben-Zayb, it wasn’t a fool who designed that” asked Padre Camorra
with a laugh.

“Well, I don’t see the point,” replied the journalist.

“But, puñales, don’t you see the title, The Philippine Press? That
utensil with which the old woman is ironing is here called the press!”

All laughed at this, Ben-Zayb himself joining in good-naturedly.

Two soldiers of the Civil Guard, appropriately labeled, were placed
behind a man who was tightly bound and had his face covered by his hat.
It was entitled The Country of Abaka, [39] and from appearances they
were going to shoot him.

Many of our visitors were displeased with the exhibition. They talked
of rules of art, they sought proportion—one said that this figure did
not have seven heads, that the face lacked a nose, having only three,
all of which made Padre Camorra somewhat thoughtful, for he did not
comprehend how a figure, to be correct, need have four noses and seven
heads. Others said, if they were muscular, that they could not be
Indians; still others remarked that it was not sculpture, but mere
carpentry. Each added his spoonful of criticism, until Padre Camorra,
not to be outdone, ventured to ask for at least thirty legs for each
doll, because, if the others wanted noses, couldn’t he require feet? So
they fell to discussing whether the Indian had or had not any aptitude
for sculpture, and whether it would be advisable to encourage that art,
until there arose a general dispute, which was cut short by Don
Custodio’s declaration that the Indians had the aptitude, but that they
should devote themselves exclusively to the manufacture of saints.

“One would say,” observed Ben-Zayb, who was full of bright ideas that
night, “that this Chinaman is Quiroga, but on close examination it
looks like Padre Irene. And what do you say about that British Indian?
He looks like Simoun!”

Fresh peals of laughter resounded, while Padre Irene rubbed his nose.

“That’s right!”

“It’s the very image of him!”

“But where is Simoun? Simoun should buy it.”

But the jeweler had disappeared, unnoticed by any one.

“Puñales!” exclaimed Padre Camorra, “how stingy the American is! He’s
afraid we would make him pay the admission for all of us into Mr.
Leeds’ show.”

“No!” rejoined Ben-Zayb, “what he’s afraid of is that he’ll compromise
himself. He may have foreseen the joke in store for his friend Mr.
Leeds and has got out of the way.”

Thus, without purchasing the least trifle, they continued on their way
to see the famous sphinx. Ben-Zayb offered to manage the affair, for
the American would not rebuff a journalist who could take revenge in an
unfavorable article. “You’ll see that it’s all a question of mirrors,”
he said, “because, you see—” Again he plunged into a long
demonstration, and as he had no mirrors at hand to discredit his theory
he tangled himself up in all kinds of blunders and wound up by not
knowing himself what he was saying. “In short, you’ll see how it’s all
a question of optics.”



CHAPTER XVIII

LEGERDEMAIN


Mr. Leeds, a genuine Yankee, dressed completely in black, received his
visitors with great deference. He spoke Spanish well, from having been
for many years in South America, and offered no objection to their
request, saying that they might examine everything, both before and
after the exhibition, but begged that they remain quiet while it was in
progress. Ben-Zayb smiled in pleasant anticipation of the vexation he
had prepared for the American.

The room, hung entirely in black, was lighted by ancient lamps burning
alcohol. A rail wrapped in black velvet divided it into two almost
equal parts, one of which was filled with seats for the spectators and
the other occupied by a platform covered with a checkered carpet. In
the center of this platform was placed a table, over which was spread a
piece of black cloth adorned with skulls and cabalistic signs. The mise
en scène was therefore lugubrious and had its effect upon the merry
visitors. The jokes died away, they spoke in whispers, and however much
some tried to appear indifferent, their lips framed no smiles. All felt
as if they had entered a house where there was a corpse, an illusion
accentuated by an odor of wax and incense. Don Custodio and Padre Salvi
consulted in whispers over the expediency of prohibiting such shows.

Ben-Zayb, in order to cheer the dispirited group and embarrass Mr.
Leeds, said to him in a familiar tone: “Eh, Mister, since there are
none but ourselves here and we aren’t Indians who can be fooled, won’t
you let us see the trick? We know of course that it’s purely a question
of optics, but as Padre Camorra won’t be convinced—”

Here he started to jump over the rail, instead of going through the
proper opening, while Padre Camorra broke out into protests, fearing
that Ben-Zayb might be right.

“And why not, sir?” rejoined the American. “But don’t break anything,
will you?”

The journalist was already on the platform. “You will allow me, then?”
he asked, and without waiting for the permission, fearing that it might
not be granted, raised the cloth to look for the mirrors that he
expected should be between the legs of the table. Ben-Zayb uttered an
exclamation and stepped back, again placed both hands under the table
and waved them about; he encountered only empty space. The table had
three thin iron legs, sunk into the floor.

The journalist looked all about as though seeking something.

“Where are the mirrors?” asked Padre Camorra.

Ben-Zayb looked and looked, felt the table with his fingers, raised the
cloth again, and rubbed his hand over his forehead from time to time,
as if trying to remember something.

“Have you lost anything?” inquired Mr. Leeds.

“The mirrors, Mister, where are the mirrors?”

“I don’t know where yours are—mine are at the hotel. Do you want to
look at yourself? You’re somewhat pale and excited.”

Many laughed, in spite of their weird impressions, on seeing the
jesting coolness of the American, while Ben-Zayb retired, quite
abashed, to his seat, muttering, “It can’t be. You’ll see that he
doesn’t do it without mirrors. The table will have to be changed
later.”

Mr. Leeds placed the cloth on the table again and turning toward his
illustrious audience, asked them, “Are you satisfied? May we begin?”

“Hurry up! How cold-blooded he is!” said the widow.

“Then, ladies and gentlemen, take your seats and get your questions
ready.”

Mr. Leeds disappeared through a doorway and in a few moments returned
with a black box of worm-eaten wood, covered with inscriptions in the
form of birds, beasts, and human heads.

“Ladies and gentlemen,” he began solemnly, “once having had occasion to
visit the great pyramid of Khufu, a Pharaoh of the fourth dynasty, I
chanced upon a sarcophagus of red granite in a forgotten chamber. My
joy was great, for I thought that I had found a royal mummy, but what
was my disappointment on opening the coffin, at the cost of infinite
labor, to find nothing more than this box, which you may examine.”

He handed the box to those in the front row. Padre Camorra drew back in
loathing, Padre Salvi looked at it closely as if he enjoyed sepulchral
things, Padre Irene smiled a knowing smile, Don Custodio affected
gravity and disdain, while Ben-Zayb hunted for his mirrors—there they
must be, for it was a question of mirrors.

“It smells like a corpse,” observed one lady, fanning herself
furiously. “Ugh!”

“It smells of forty centuries,” remarked some one with emphasis.

Ben-Zayb forgot about his mirrors to discover who had made this remark.
It was a military official who had read the history of Napoleon.

Ben-Zayb felt jealous and to utter another epigram that might annoy
Padre Camorra a little said, “It smells of the Church.”

“This box, ladies and gentlemen,” continued the American, “contained a
handful of ashes and a piece of papyrus on which were written some
words. Examine them yourselves, but I beg of you not to breathe
heavily, because if any of the dust is lost my sphinx will appear in a
mutilated condition.”

The humbug, described with such seriousness and conviction, was
gradually having its effect, so much so that when the box was passed
around, no one dared to breathe. Padre Camorra, who had so often
depicted from the pulpit of Tiani the torments and sufferings of hell,
while he laughed in his sleeves at the terrified looks of the sinners,
held his nose, and Padre Salvi—the same Padre Salvi who had on All
Souls’ Day prepared a phantasmagoria of the souls in purgatory with
flames and transparencies illuminated with alcohol lamps and covered
with tinsel, on the high altar of the church in a suburb, in order to
get alms and orders for masses—the lean and taciturn Padre Salvi held
his breath and gazed suspiciously at that handful of ashes.

“Memento, homo, quia pulvis es!” muttered Padre Irene with a smile.

“Pish!” sneered Ben-Zayb—the same thought had occurred to him, and the
Canon had taken the words out of his mouth.

“Not knowing what to do,” resumed Mr. Leeds, closing the box carefully,
“I examined the papyrus and discovered two words whose meaning was
unknown to me. I deciphered them, and tried to pronounce them aloud.
Scarcely had I uttered the first word when I felt the box slipping from
my hands, as if pressed down by an enormous weight, and it glided along
the floor, whence I vainly endeavored to remove it. But my surprise was
converted into terror when it opened and I found within a human head
that stared at me fixedly. Paralyzed with fright and uncertain what to
do in the presence of such a phenomenon, I remained for a time
stupefied, trembling like a person poisoned with mercury, but after a
while recovered myself and, thinking that it was a vain illusion, tried
to divert my attention by reading the second word. Hardly had I
pronounced it when the box closed, the head disappeared, and in its
place I again found the handful of ashes. Without suspecting it I had
discovered the two most potent words in nature, the words of creation
and destruction, of life and of death!”

He paused for a few moments to note the effect of his story, then with
grave and measured steps approached the table and placed the mysterious
box upon it.

“The cloth, Mister!” exclaimed the incorrigible Ben-Zayb.

“Why not?” rejoined Mr. Leeds, very complaisantly.

Lifting the box with his right hand, he caught up the cloth with his
left, completely exposing the table sustained by its three legs. Again
he placed the box upon the center and with great gravity turned to his
audience.

“Here’s what I want to see,” said Ben-Zayb to his neighbor. “You notice
how he makes some excuse.”

Great attention was depicted on all countenances and silence reigned.
The noise and roar of the street could be distinctly heard, but all
were so affected that a snatch of dialogue which reached them produced
no effect.

“Why can’t we go in?” asked a woman’s voice.

“Abá, there’s a lot of friars and clerks in there,” answered a man.
“The sphinx is for them only.”

“The friars are inquisitive too,” said the woman’s voice, drawing away.
“They don’t want us to know how they’re being fooled. Why, is the head
a friar’s querida?”

In the midst of a profound silence the American announced in a tone of
emotion: “Ladies and gentlemen, with a word I am now going to reanimate
the handful of ashes, and you will talk with a being that knows the
past, the present, and much of the future!”

Here the prestidigitator uttered a soft cry, first mournful, then
lively, a medley of sharp sounds like imprecations and hoarse notes
like threats, which made Ben-Zayb’s hair stand on end.

“Deremof!” cried the American.

The curtains on the wall rustled, the lamps burned low, the table
creaked. A feeble groan responded from the interior of the box. Pale
and uneasy, all stared at one another, while one terrified señora
caught hold of Padre Salvi.

The box then opened of its own accord and presented to the eyes of the
audience a head of cadaverous aspect, surrounded by long and abundant
black hair. It slowly opened its eyes and looked around the whole
audience. Those eyes had a vivid radiance, accentuated by their
cavernous sockets, and, as if deep were calling unto deep, fixed
themselves upon the profound, sunken eyes of the trembling Padre Salvi,
who was staring unnaturally, as though he saw a ghost.

“Sphinx,” commanded Mr. Leeds, “tell the audience who you are.”

A deep silence prevailed, while a chill wind blew through the room and
made the blue flames of the sepulchral lamps flicker. The most
skeptical shivered.

“I am Imuthis,” declared the head in a funereal, but strangely
menacing, voice. “I was born in the time of Amasis and died under the
Persian domination, when Cambyses was returning from his disastrous
expedition into the interior of Libya. I had come to complete my
education after extensive travels through Greece, Assyria, and Persia,
and had returned to my native laud to dwell in it until Thoth should
call me before his terrible tribunal. But to my undoing, on passing
through Babylonia, I discovered an awful secret—the secret of the false
Smerdis who usurped the throne, the bold Magian Gaumata who governed as
an impostor. Fearing that I would betray him to Cambyses, he determined
upon my ruin through the instrumentality of the Egyptian priests, who
at that time ruled my native country. They were the owners of
two-thirds of the land, the monopolizers of learning, they held the
people down in ignorance and tyranny, they brutalized them, thus making
them fit to pass without resistance from one domination to another. The
invaders availed themselves of them, and knowing their usefulness,
protected and enriched them. The rulers not only depended on their
will, but some were reduced to mere instruments of theirs. The Egyptian
priests hastened to execute Gaumata’s orders, with greater zeal from
their fear of me, because they were afraid that I would reveal their
impostures to the people. To accomplish their purpose, they made use of
a young priest of Abydos, who passed for a saint.”

A painful silence followed these words. That head was talking of
priestly intrigues and impostures, and although referring to another
age and other creeds, all the friars present were annoyed, possibly
because they could see in the general trend of the speech some analogy
to the existing situation. Padre Salvi was in the grip of convulsive
shivering; he worked his lips and with bulging eyes followed the gaze
of the head as though fascinated. Beads of sweat began to break out on
his emaciated face, but no one noticed this, so deeply absorbed and
affected were they.

“What was the plot concocted by the priests of your country against
you?” asked Mr. Leeds.

The head uttered a sorrowful groan, which seemed to come from the
bottom of the heart, and the spectators saw its eyes, those fiery eyes,
clouded and filled with tears. Many shuddered and felt their hair rise.
No, that was not an illusion, it was not a trick: the head was the
victim and what it told was its own story.

“Ay!” it moaned, shaking with affliction, “I loved a maiden, the
daughter of a priest, pure as light, like the freshly opened lotus! The
young priest of Abydos also desired her and planned a rebellion, using
my name and some papyri that he had secured from my beloved. The
rebellion broke out at the time when Cambyses was returning in rage
over the disasters of his unfortunate campaign. I was accused of being
a rebel, was made a prisoner, and having effected my escape was killed
in the chase on Lake Moeris. From out of eternity I saw the imposture
triumph. I saw the priest of Abydos night and day persecuting the
maiden, who had taken refuge in a temple of Isis on the island of
Philae. I saw him persecute and harass her, even in the subterranean
chambers, I saw him drive her mad with terror and suffering, like a
huge bat pursuing a white dove. Ah, priest, priest of Abydos, I have
returned to life to expose your infamy, and after so many years of
silence, I name thee murderer, hypocrite, liar!”

A dry, hollow laugh accompanied these words, while a choked voice
responded, “No! Mercy!”

It was Padre Salvi, who had been overcome with terror and with arms
extended was slipping in collapse to the floor.

“What’s the matter with your Reverence? Are you ill?” asked Padre
Irene.

“The heat of the room—”

“This odor of corpses we’re breathing here—”

“Murderer, slanderer, hypocrite!” repeated the head. “I accuse
you—murderer, murderer, murderer!”

Again the dry laugh, sepulchral and menacing, resounded, as though that
head were so absorbed in contemplation of its wrongs that it did not
see the tumult that prevailed in the room.

“Mercy! She still lives!” groaned Padre Salvi, and then lost
consciousness. He was as pallid as a corpse. Some of the ladies thought
it their duty to faint also, and proceeded to do so.

“He is out of his head! Padre Salvi!”

“I told him not to eat that bird’s-nest soup,” said Padre Irene. “It
has made him sick.”

“But he didn’t eat anything,” rejoined Don Custodio shivering. “As the
head has been staring at him fixedly, it has mesmerized him.”

So disorder prevailed, the room seemed to be a hospital or a
battlefield. Padre Salvi looked like a corpse, and the ladies, seeing
that no one was paying them any attention, made the best of it by
recovering.

Meanwhile, the head had been reduced to ashes, and Mr. Leeds, having
replaced the cloth on the table, bowed his audience out.

“This show must be prohibited,” said Don Custodio on leaving. “It’s
wicked and highly immoral.”

“And above all, because it doesn’t use mirrors,” added Ben-Zayb, who
before going out of the room tried to assure himself finally, so he
leaped over the rail, went up to the table, and raised the cloth:
nothing, absolutely nothing! [40] On the following day he wrote an
article in which he spoke of occult sciences, spiritualism, and the
like.

An order came immediately from the ecclesiastical governor prohibiting
the show, but Mr. Leeds had already disappeared, carrying his secret
with him to Hongkong.



CHAPTER XIX

THE FUSE


Placido Penitente left the class with his heart overflowing with
bitterness and sullen gloom in his looks. He was worthy of his name
when not driven from his usual course, but once irritated he was a
veritable torrent, a wild beast that could only be stopped by the death
of himself or his foe. So many affronts, so many pinpricks, day after
day, had made his heart quiver, lodging in it to sleep the sleep of
lethargic vipers, and they now were awaking to shake and hiss with
fury. The hisses resounded in his ears with the jesting epithets of the
professor, the phrases in the slang of the markets, and he seemed to
hear blows and laughter. A thousand schemes for revenge rushed into his
brain, crowding one another, only to fade immediately like phantoms in
a dream. His vanity cried out to him with desperate tenacity that he
must do something.

“Placido Penitente,” said the voice, “show these youths that you have
dignity, that you are the son of a valiant and noble province, where
wrongs are washed out with blood. You’re a Batangan, Placido Penitente!
Avenge yourself, Placido Penitente!”

The youth groaned and gnashed his teeth, stumbling against every one in
the street and on the Bridge of Spain, as if he were seeking a quarrel.
In the latter place he saw a carriage in which was the Vice-Rector,
Padre Sibyla, accompanied by Don Custodio, and he had a great mind to
seize the friar and throw him into the river.

He proceeded along the Escolta and was tempted to assault two
Augustinians who were seated in the doorway of Quiroga’s bazaar,
laughing and joking with other friars who must have been inside in
joyous conversation, for their merry voices and sonorous laughter could
be heard. Somewhat farther on, two cadets blocked up the sidewalk,
talking with the clerk of a warehouse, who was in his shirtsleeves.
Penitents moved toward them to force a passage and they, perceiving his
dark intention, good-humoredly made way for him. Placido was by this
time under the influence of the amok, as the Malayists say.

As he approached his home—the house of a silversmith where he lived as
a boarder—he tried to collect his thoughts and make a plan—to return to
his town and avenge himself by showing the friars that they could not
with impunity insult a youth or make a joke of him. He decided to write
a letter immediately to his mother, Cabesang Andang, to inform her of
what had happened and to tell her that the schoolroom had closed
forever for him. Although there was the Ateneo of the Jesuits, where he
might study that year, yet it was not very likely that the Dominicans
would grant him the transfer, and, even though he should secure it, in
the following year he would have to return to the University.

“They say that we don’t know how to avenge ourselves!” he muttered.
“Let the lightning strike and we’ll see!”

But Placido was not reckoning upon what awaited him in the house of the
silversmith. Cabesang Andang had just arrived from Batangas, having
come to do some shopping, to visit her son, and to bring him money,
jerked venison, and silk handkerchiefs.

The first greetings over, the poor woman, who had at once noticed her
son’s gloomy look, could no longer restrain her curiosity and began to
ask questions. His first explanations Cabesang Andang regarded as some
subterfuge, so she smiled and soothed her son, reminding him of their
sacrifices and privations. She spoke of Capitana Simona’s son, who,
having entered the seminary, now carried himself in the town like a
bishop, and Capitana Simona already considered herself a Mother of God,
clearly so, for her son was going to be another Christ.

“If the son becomes a priest,” said she, “the mother won’t have to pay
us what she owes us. Who will collect from her then?”

But on seeing that Placido was speaking seriously and reading in his
eyes the storm that raged within him, she realized that what he was
telling her was unfortunately the strict truth. She remained silent for
a while and then broke out into lamentations.

“Ay!” she exclaimed. “I promised your father that I would care for you,
educate you, and make a lawyer of you! I’ve deprived myself of
everything so that you might go to school! Instead of joining the
panguingui where the stake is a half peso, I Ve gone only where it’s a
half real, enduring the bad smells and the dirty cards. Look at my
patched camisa; for instead of buying new ones I’ve spent the money in
masses and presents to St. Sebastian, even though I don’t have great
confidence in his power, because the curate recites the masses fast and
hurriedly, he’s an entirely new saint and doesn’t yet know how to
perform miracles, and isn’t made of batikulin but of lanete. Ay, what
will your father say to me when I die and see him again!”

So the poor woman lamented and wept, while Placido became gloomier and
let stifled sighs escape from his breast.

“What would I get out of being a lawyer?” was his response.

“What will become of you?” asked his mother, clasping her hands.
“They’ll call you a filibuster and garrote you. I’ve told you that you
must have patience, that you must be humble. I don’t tell you that you
must kiss the hands of the curates, for I know that you have a delicate
sense of smell, like your father, who couldn’t endure European cheese.
[41] But we have to suffer, to be silent, to say yes to everything.
What are we going to do? The friars own everything, and if they are
unwilling, no one will become a lawyer or a doctor. Have patience, my
son, have patience!”

“But I’ve had a great deal, mother, I’ve suffered for months and
months.”

Cabesang Andang then resumed her lamentations. She did not ask that he
declare himself a partizan of the friars, she was not one herself—it
was enough to know that for one good friar there were ten bad, who took
the money from the poor and deported the rich. But one must be silent,
suffer, and endure—there was no other course. She cited this man and
that one, who by being patient and humble, even though in the bottom of
his heart he hated his masters, had risen from servant of the friars to
high office; and such another who was rich and could commit abuses,
secure of having patrons who would protect him from the law, yet who
had been nothing more than a poor sacristan, humble and obedient, and
who had married a pretty girl whose son had the curate for a godfather.
So Cabesang Andang continued her litany of humble and patient
Filipinos, as she called them, and was about to cite others who by not
being so had found themselves persecuted and exiled, when Placido on
some trifling pretext left the house to wander about the streets.

He passed through Sibakong, [42] Tondo, San Nicolas, and Santo Cristo,
absorbed in his ill-humor, without taking note of the sun or the hour,
and only when he began to feel hungry and discovered that he had no
money, having given it all for celebrations and contributions, did he
return to the house. He had expected that he would not meet his mother
there, as she was in the habit, when in Manila, of going out at that
hour to a neighboring house where panguingui was played, but Cabesang
Andang was waiting to propose her plan. She would avail herself of the
procurator of the Augustinians to restore her son to the good graces of
the Dominicans.

Placido stopped her with a gesture. “I’ll throw myself into the sea
first,” he declared. “I’ll become a tulisan before I’ll go back to the
University.”

Again his mother began her preachment about patience and humility, so
he went away again without having eaten anything, directing his steps
toward the quay where the steamers tied up. The sight of a steamer
weighing anchor for Hongkong inspired him with an idea—to go to
Hongkong, to run away, get rich there, and make war on the friars.

The thought of Hongkong awoke in his mind the recollection of a story
about frontals, cirials, and candelabra of pure silver, which the piety
of the faithful had led them to present to a certain church. The
friars, so the silversmith told, had sent to Hongkong to have duplicate
frontals, cirials, and candelabra made of German silver, which they
substituted for the genuine ones, these being melted down and coined
into Mexican pesos. Such was the story he had heard, and though it was
no more than a rumor or a story, his resentment gave it the color of
truth and reminded him of other tricks of theirs in that same style.
The desire to live free, and certain half-formed plans, led him to
decide upon Hongkong. If the corporations sent all their money there,
commerce must be flourishing and he could enrich himself.

“I want to be free, to live free!”

Night surprised him wandering along San Fernando, but not meeting any
sailor he knew, he decided to return home. As the night was beautiful,
with a brilliant moon transforming the squalid city into a fantastic
fairy kingdom, he went to the fair. There he wandered back and forth,
passing booths without taking any notice of the articles in them, ever
with the thought of Hongkong, of living free, of enriching himself.

He was about to leave the fair when he thought he recognized the
jeweler Simoun bidding good-by to a foreigner, both of them speaking in
English. To Placido every language spoken in the Philippines by
Europeans, when not Spanish, had to be English, and besides, he caught
the name Hongkong. If only the jeweler would recommend him to that
foreigner, who must be setting out for Hongkong!

Placido paused. He was acquainted with the jeweler, as the latter had
been in his town peddling his wares, and he had accompanied him on one
of his trips, when Simoun had made himself very amiable indeed, telling
him of the life in the universities of the free countries—what a
difference!

So he followed the jeweler. “Señor Simoun, Señor Simoun!” he called.

The jeweler was at that moment entering his carriage. Recognizing
Placido, he checked himself.

“I want to ask a favor of you, to say a few words to you.”

Simoun made a sign of impatience which Placido in his perturbation did
not observe. In a few words the youth related what had happened and
made known his desire to go to Hongkong.

“Why?” asked Simoun, staring fixedly at Placido through his blue
goggles.

Placido did not answer, so Simoun threw back his head, smiled his cold,
silent smile and said, “All right! Come with me. To Calle Iris!” he
directed the cochero.

Simoun remained silent throughout the whole drive, apparently absorbed
in meditation of a very important nature. Placido kept quiet, waiting
for him to speak first, and entertained himself in watching the
promenaders who were enjoying the clear moonlight: pairs of infatuated
lovers, followed by watchful mammas or aunts; groups of students in
white clothes that the moonlight made whiter still; half-drunken
soldiers in a carriage, six together, on their way to visit some nipa
temple dedicated to Cytherea; children playing their games and Chinese
selling sugar-cane. All these filled the streets, taking on in the
brilliant moonlight fantastic forms and ideal outlines. In one house an
orchestra was playing waltzes, and couples might be seen dancing under
the bright lamps and chandeliers—what a sordid spectacle they presented
in comparison with the sight the streets afforded! Thinking of
Hongkong, he asked himself if the moonlit nights in that island were so
poetical and sweetly melancholy as those of the Philippines, and a deep
sadness settled down over his heart.

Simoun ordered the carriage to stop and both alighted, just at the
moment when Isagani and Paulita Gomez passed them murmuring sweet
inanities. Behind them came Doña Victorina with Juanito Pelaez, who was
talking in a loud voice, busily gesticulating, and appearing to have a
larger hump than ever. In his preoccupation Pelaez did not notice his
former schoolmate.

“There’s a fellow who’s happy!” muttered Placido with a sigh, as he
gazed toward the group, which became converted into vaporous
silhouettes, with Juanito’s arms plainly visible, rising and falling
like the arms of a windmill.

“That’s all he’s good for,” observed Simoun. “It’s fine to be young!”

To whom did Placido and Simoun each allude?

The jeweler made a sign to the young man, and they left the street to
pick their way through a labyrinth of paths and passageways among
various houses, at times leaping upon stones to avoid the mudholes or
stepping aside from the sidewalks that were badly constructed and still
more badly tended. Placido was surprised to see the rich jeweler move
through such places as if he were familiar with them. They at length
reached an open lot where a wretched hut stood off by itself surrounded
by banana-plants and areca-palms. Some bamboo frames and sections of
the same material led Placido to suspect that they were approaching the
house of a pyrotechnist.

Simoun rapped on the window and a man’s face appeared.

“Ah, sir!” he exclaimed, and immediately came outside.

“Is the powder here?” asked Simoun.

“In sacks. I’m waiting for the shells.”

“And the bombs?”

“Are all ready.”

“All right, then. This very night you must go and inform the lieutenant
and the corporal. Then keep on your way, and in Lamayan you will find a
man in a banka. You will say Cabesa and he will answer Tales. It’s
necessary that he be here tomorrow. There’s no time to be lost.”

Saying this, he gave him some gold coins.

“How’s this, sir?” the man inquired in very good Spanish. “Is there any
news?”

“Yes, it’ll be done within the coming week.”

“The coming week!” exclaimed the unknown, stepping backward. “The
suburbs are not yet ready, they hope that the General will withdraw the
decree. I thought it was postponed until the beginning of Lent.”

Simoun shook his head. “We won’t need the suburbs,” he said. “With
Cabesang Tales’ people, the ex-carbineers, and a regiment, we’ll have
enough. Later, Maria Clara may be dead. Start at once!”

The man disappeared. Placido, who had stood by and heard all of this
brief interview, felt his hair rise and stared with startled eyes at
Simoun, who smiled.

“You’re surprised,” he said with his icy smile, “that this Indian, so
poorly dressed, speaks Spanish well? He was a schoolmaster who
persisted in teaching Spanish to the children and did not stop until he
had lost his position and had been deported as a disturber of the
public peace, and for having been a friend of the unfortunate Ibarra. I
got him back from his deportation, where he had been working as a
pruner of coconut-palms, and have made him a pyrotechnist.”

They returned to the street and set out for Trozo. Before a wooden
house of pleasant and well-kept appearance was a Spaniard on crutches,
enjoying the moonlight. When Simoun accosted him, his attempt to rise
was accompanied by a stifled groan.

“You’re ready?” Simoun inquired of him.

“I always am!”

“The coming week?”

“So soon?”

“At the first cannon-shot!”

He moved away, followed by Placido, who was beginning to ask himself if
he were not dreaming.

“Does it surprise you,” Simoun asked him, “to see a Spaniard so young
and so afflicted with disease? Two years ago he was as robust as you
are, but his enemies succeeded in sending him to Balabak to work in a
penal settlement, and there he caught the rheumatism and fever that are
dragging him into the grave. The poor devil had married a very
beautiful woman.”

As an empty carriage was passing, Simoun hailed it and with Placido
directed it to his house in the Escolta, just at the moment when the
clocks were striking half-past ten.

Two hours later Placido left the jeweler’s house and walked gravely and
thoughtfully along the Escolta, then almost deserted, in spite of the
fact that the cafés were still quite animated. Now and then a carriage
passed rapidly, clattering noisily over the worn pavement.

From a room in his house that overlooked the Pasig, Simoun turned his
gaze toward the Walled City, which could be seen through the open
windows, with its roofs of galvanized iron gleaming in the moonlight
and its somber towers showing dull and gloomy in the midst of the
serene night. He laid aside his blue goggles, and his white hair, like
a frame of silver, surrounded his energetic bronzed features, dimly
lighted by a lamp whose flame was dying out from lack of oil.
Apparently wrapped in thought, he took no notice of the fading light
and impending darkness.

“Within a few days,” he murmured, “when on all sides that accursed city
is burning, den of presumptuous nothingness and impious exploitation of
the ignorant and the distressed, when the tumults break out in the
suburbs and there rush into the terrorized streets my avenging hordes,
engendered by rapacity and wrongs, then will I burst the walls of your
prison, I will tear you from the clutches of fanaticism, and my white
dove, you will be the Phoenix that will rise from the glowing embers! A
revolution plotted by men in darkness tore me from your side—another
revolution will sweep me into your arms and revive me! That moon,
before reaching the apogee of its brilliance, will light the
Philippines cleansed of loathsome filth!”

Simoun, stopped suddenly, as though interrupted. A voice in his inner
consciousness was asking if he, Simoun, were not also a part of the
filth of that accursed city, perhaps its most poisonous ferment. Like
the dead who are to rise at the sound of the last trumpet, a thousand
bloody specters—desperate shades of murdered men, women violated,
fathers torn from their families, vices stimulated and encouraged,
virtues mocked, now rose in answer to the mysterious question. For the
first time in his criminal career, since in Havana he had by means of
corruption and bribery set out to fashion an instrument for the
execution of his plans—a man without faith, patriotism, or
conscience—for the first time in that life, something within rose up
and protested against his actions. He closed his eyes and remained for
some time motionless, then rubbed his hand over his forehead, tried to
be deaf to his conscience, and felt fear creeping over him. No, he must
not analyze himself, he lacked the courage to turn his gaze toward his
past. The idea of his courage, his conviction, his self-confidence
failing him at the very moment when his work was set before him! As the
ghosts of the wretches in whose misfortunes he had taken a hand
continued to hover before his eyes, as if issuing from the shining
surface of the river to invade the room with appeals and hands extended
toward him, as reproaches and laments seemed to fill the air with
threats and cries for vengeance, he turned his gaze from the window and
for the first time began to tremble.

“No, I must be ill, I can’t be feeling well,” he muttered. “There are
many who hate me, who ascribe their misfortunes to me, but—”

He felt his forehead begin to burn, so he arose to approach the window
and inhale the fresh night breeze. Below him the Pasig dragged along
its silvered stream, on whose bright surface the foam glittered,
winding slowly about, receding and advancing, following the course of
the little eddies. The city loomed up on the opposite bank, and its
black walls looked fateful, mysterious, losing their sordidness in the
moonlight that idealizes and embellishes everything. But again Simoun
shivered; he seemed to see before him the severe countenance of his
father, dying in prison, but dying for having done good; then the face
of another man, severer still, who had given his life for him because
he believed that he was going to bring about the regeneration of his
country.

“No, I can’t turn back,” he exclaimed, wiping the perspiration from his
forehead. “The work is at hand and its success will justify me! If I
had conducted myself as you did, I should have succumbed. Nothing of
idealism, nothing of fallacious theories! Fire and steel to the cancer,
chastisement to vice, and afterwards destroy the instrument, if it be
bad! No, I have planned well, but now I feel feverish, my reason
wavers, it is natural—If I have done ill, it has been that I may do
good, and the end justifies the means. What I will do is not to expose
myself—”

With his thoughts thus confused he lay down, and tried to fall asleep.

On the following morning Placido listened submissively, with a smile on
his lips, to his mother’s preachment. When she spoke of her plan of
interesting the Augustinian procurator he did not protest or object,
but on the contrary offered himself to carry it out, in order to save
trouble for his mother, whom he begged to return at once to the
province, that very day, if possible. Cabesang Andang asked him the
reason for such haste.

“Because—because if the procurator learns that you are here he won’t do
anything until you send him a present and order some masses.”



CHAPTER XX

THE ARBITER


True it was that Padre Irene had said: the question of the academy of
Castilian, so long before broached, was on the road to a solution. Don
Custodio, the active Don Custodio, the most active of all the arbiters
in the world, according to Ben-Zayb, was occupied with it, spending his
days reading the petition and falling asleep without reaching any
decision, waking on the following day to repeat the same performance,
dropping off to sleep again, and so on continuously.

How the good man labored, the most active of all the arbiters in the
world! He wished to get out of the predicament by pleasing
everybody—the friars, the high official, the Countess, Padre Irene, and
his own liberal principles. He had consulted with Señor Pasta, and
Señor Pasta had left him stupefied and confused, after advising him to
do a million contradictory and impossible things. He had consulted with
Pepay the dancing girl, and Pepay, who had no idea what he was talking
about, executed a pirouette and asked him for twenty-five pesos to bury
an aunt of hers who had suddenly died for the fifth time, or the fifth
aunt who had suddenly died, according to fuller explanations, at the
same time requesting that he get a cousin of hers who could read,
write, and play the violin, a job as assistant on the public works—all
things that were far from inspiring Don Custodio with any saving idea.

Two days after the events in the Quiapo fair, Don Custodio was as usual
busily studying the petition, without hitting upon the happy solution.
While he yawns, coughs, smokes, and thinks about Pepay’s legs and her
pirouettes, let us give some account of this exalted personage, in
order to understand Padre Sibyla’s reason for proposing him as the
arbiter of such a vexatious matter and why the other clique accepted
him.

Don Custodio de Salazar y Sanchez de Monteredondo, often referred to as
Good Authority, belonged to that class of Manila society which cannot
take a step without having the newspapers heap titles upon them,
calling each indedefatigable, distinguished, zealous, active, profound,
intelligent, well-informed, influential, and so on, as if they feared
that he might be confused with some idle and ignorant possessor of the
same name. Besides, no harm resulted from it, and the watchful censor
was not disturbed. The Good Authority resulted from his friendship with
Ben-Zayb, when the latter, in his two noisiest controversies, which he
carried on for weeks and months in the columns of the newspapers about
whether it was proper to wear a high hat, a derby, or a salakot, and
whether the plural of carácter should be carácteres or caractéres, in
order to strengthen his argument always came out with, “We have this on
good authority,” “We learn this from good authority,” later letting it
be known, for in Manila everything becomes known, that this Good
Authority was no other than Don Custodio de Salazar y Sanchez de
Monteredondo.

He had come to Manila very young, with a good position that had enabled
him to marry a pretty mestiza belonging to one of the wealthiest
families of the city. As he had natural talent, boldness, and great
self-possession, and knew how to make use of the society in which he
found himself, he launched into business with his wife’s money, filling
contracts for the government, by reason of which he was made alderman,
afterwards alcalde, member of the Economic Society, [43] councilor of
the administration, president of the directory of the Obras Pias, [44]
member of the Society of Mercy, director of the Spanish-Filipino Bank,
etc., etc. Nor are these etceteras to be taken like those ordinarily
placed after a long enumeration of titles: Don Custodio, although never
having seen a treatise on hygiene, came to be vice-chairman of the
Board of Health, for the truth was that of the eight who composed this
board only one had to be a physician and he could not be that one. So
also he was a member of the Vaccination Board, which was composed of
three physicians and seven laymen, among these being the Archbishop and
three Provincials. He was a brother in all the confraternities of the
common and of the most exalted dignity, and, as we have seen, director
of the Superior Commission of Primary Instruction, which usually did
not do anything—all these being quite sufficient reason for the
newspapers to heap adjectives upon him no less when he traveled than
when he sneezed.

In spite of so many offices, Don Custodio was not among those who slept
through the sessions, contenting themselves, like lazy and timid
delegates, in voting with the majority. The opposite of the numerous
kings of Europe who bear the title of King of Jerusalem, Don Custodio
made his dignity felt and got from it all the benefit possible, often
frowning, making his voice impressive, coughing out his words, often
taking up the whole session telling a story, presenting a project, or
disputing with a colleague who had placed himself in open opposition to
him. Although not past forty, he already talked of acting with
circumspection, of letting the figs ripen (adding under his breath
“pumpkins”), of pondering deeply and of stepping with careful tread, of
the necessity for understanding the country, because the nature of the
Indians, because the prestige of the Spanish name, because they were
first of all Spaniards, because religion—and so on. Remembered yet in
Manila is a speech of his when for the first time it was proposed to
light the city with kerosene in place of the old coconut oil: in such
an innovation, far from seeing the extinction of the coconut-oil
industry, he merely discerned the interests of a certain
alderman—because Don Custodio saw a long way—and opposed it with all
the resonance of his bucal cavity, considering the project too
premature and predicting great social cataclysms. No less celebrated
was his opposition to a sentimental serenade that some wished to tender
a certain governor on the eve of his departure. Don Custodio, who felt
a little resentment over some slight or other, succeeded in insinuating
the idea that the rising star was the mortal enemy of the setting one,
whereat the frightened promoters of the serenade gave it up.

One day he was advised to return to Spain to be cured of a liver
complaint, and the newspapers spoke of him as an Antaeus who had to set
foot in the mother country to gain new strength. But the Manila Antaeus
found himself a small and insignificant person at the capital. There he
was nobody, and he missed his beloved adjectives. He did not mingle
with the upper set, and his lack of education prevented him from
amounting to much in the academies and scientific centers, while his
backwardness and his parish-house politics drove him from the clubs
disgusted, vexed, seeing nothing clearly but that there they were
forever borrowing money and gambling heavily. He missed the submissive
servants of Manila, who endured all his peevishness, and who now seemed
to be far preferable; when a winter kept him between a fireplace and an
attack of pneumonia, he sighed for the Manila winter during which a
single quilt is sufficient, while in summer he missed the easy-chair
and the boy to fan him. In short, in Madrid he was only one among many,
and in spite of his diamonds he was once taken for a rustic who did not
know how to comport himself and at another time for an Indiano. His
scruples were scoffed at, and he was shamelessly flouted by some
borrowers whom he offended. Disgusted with the conservatives, who took
no great notice of his advice, as well as with the sponges who rifled
his pockets, he declared himself to be of the liberal party and
returned within a year to the Philippines, if not sound in his liver,
yet completely changed in his beliefs.

The eleven months spent at the capital among café politicians, nearly
all retired half-pay office-holders, the various speeches caught here
and there, this or that article of the opposition, all the political
life that permeates the air, from the barber-shop where amid the
scissors-clips the Figaro announces his program to the banquets where
in harmonious periods and telling phrases the different shades of
political opinion, the divergences and disagreements, are adjusted—all
these things awoke in him the farther he got from Europe, like the
life-giving sap within the sown seed prevented from bursting out by the
thick husk, in such a way that when he reached Manila he believed that
he was going to regenerate it and actually had the holiest plans and
the purest ideals.

During the first months after his return he was continually talking
about the capital, about his good friends, about Minister So-and-So,
ex-Minister Such-a-One, the delegate C., the author B., and there was
not a political event, a court scandal, of which he was not informed to
the last detail, nor was there a public man the secrets of whose
private life were unknown to him, nor could anything occur that he had
not foreseen, nor any reform be ordered but he had first been
consulted. All this was seasoned with attacks on the conservatives in
righteous indignation, with apologies of the liberal party, with a
little anecdote here, a phrase there from some great man, dropped in as
one who did not wish offices and employments, which same he had refused
in order not to be beholden to the conservatives. Such was his
enthusiasm in these first days that various cronies in the
grocery-store which he visited from time to time affiliated themselves
with the liberal party and began to style themselves liberals: Don
Eulogio Badana, a retired sergeant of carbineers; the honest Armendia,
by profession a pilot, and a rampant Carlist; Don Eusebio Picote,
customs inspector; and Don Bonifacio Tacon, shoe- and harness-maker.
[45]

But nevertheless, from lack of encouragement and of opposition, his
enthusiasm gradually waned. He did not read the newspapers that came
from Spain, because they arrived in packages, the sight of which made
him yawn. The ideas that he had caught having been all expended, he
needed reinforcement, and his orators were not there, and although in
the casinos of Manila there was enough gambling, and money was borrowed
as in Madrid, no speech that would nourish his political ideas was
permitted in them. But Don Custodio was not lazy, he did more than
wish—he worked. Foreseeing that he was going to leave his bones in the
Philippines, he began to consider that country his proper sphere and to
devote his efforts to its welfare. Thinking to liberalize it, he
commenced to draw up a series of reforms or projects, which were
ingenious, to say the least. It was he who, having heard in Madrid
mention of the wooden street pavements of Paris, not yet adopted in
Spain, proposed the introduction of them in Manila by covering the
streets with boards nailed down as they are on the sides of houses; it
was he who, deploring the accidents to two-wheeled vehicles, planned to
avoid them by putting on at least three wheels; it was also he who,
while acting as vice-president of the Board of Health, ordered
everything fumigated, even the telegrams that came from infected
places; it was also he who, in compassion for the convicts that worked
in the sun and with a desire of saving to the government the cost of
their equipment, suggested that they be clothed in a simple
breech-clout and set to work not by day but at night. He marveled, he
stormed, that his projects should encounter objectors, but consoled
himself with the reflection that the man who is worth enemies has them,
and revenged himself by attacking and tearing to pieces any project,
good or bad, presented by others.

As he prided himself on being a liberal, upon being asked what he
thought of the Indians he would answer, like one conferring a great
favor, that they were fitted for manual labor and the imitative arts
(meaning thereby music, painting, and sculpture), adding his old
postscript that to know them one must have resided many, many years in
the country. Yet when he heard of any one of them excelling in
something that was not manual labor or an imitative art—in chemistry,
medicine, or philosophy, for example—he would exclaim: “Ah, he promises
fairly, fairly well, he’s not a fool!” and feel sure that a great deal
of Spanish blood must flow in the veins of such an Indian. If unable to
discover any in spite of his good intentions, he then sought a Japanese
origin, for it was at that time the fashion began of attributing to the
Japanese or the Arabs whatever good the Filipinos might have in them.
For him the native songs were Arabic music, as was also the alphabet of
the ancient Filipinos—he was certain of this, although he did not know
Arabic nor had he ever seen that alphabet.

“Arabic, the purest Arabic,” he said to Ben-Zayb in a tone that
admitted no reply. “At best, Chinese!”

Then he would add, with a significant wink: “Nothing can be, nothing
ought to be, original with the Indians, you understand! I like them
greatly, but they mustn’t be allowed to pride themselves upon anything,
for then they would take heart and turn into a lot of wretches.”

At other times he would say: “I love the Indians fondly, I’ve
constituted myself their father and defender, but it’s necessary to
keep everything in its proper place. Some were born to command and
others to serve—plainly, that is a truism which can’t be uttered very
loudly, but it can be put into practise without many words. For look,
the trick depends upon trifles. When you wish to reduce a people to
subjection, assure it that it is in subjection. The first day it will
laugh, the second protest, the third doubt, and the fourth be
convinced. To keep the Filipino docile, he must have repeated to him
day after day what he is, to convince him that he is incompetent. What
good would it do, besides, to have him believe in something else that
would make him wretched? Believe me, it’s an act of charity to hold
every creature in his place—that is order, harmony. That constitutes
the science of government.”

In referring to his policies, Don Custodio was not satisfied with the
word art, and upon pronouncing the word government, he would extend his
hand downwards to the height of a man bent over on his knees.

In regard to his religious ideas, he prided himself on being a
Catholic, very much a Catholic—ah, Catholic Spain, the land of María
Santísima! A liberal could be and ought to be a Catholic, when the
reactionaries were setting themselves up as gods or saints, just as a
mulatto passes for a white man in Kaffirland. But with all that, he ate
meat during Lent, except on Good Friday, never went to confession,
believed neither in miracles nor the infallibility of the Pope, and
when he attended mass, went to the one at ten o’clock, or to the
shortest, the military mass. Although in Madrid he had spoken ill of
the religious orders, so as not to be out of harmony with his
surroundings, considering them anachronisms, and had hurled curses
against the Inquisition, while relating this or that lurid or droll
story wherein the habits danced, or rather friars without habits, yet
in speaking of the Philippines, which should be ruled by special laws,
he would cough, look wise, and again extend his hand downwards to that
mysterious altitude.

“The friars are necessary, they’re a necessary evil,” he would declare.

But how he would rage when any Indian dared to doubt the miracles or
did not acknowledge the Pope! All the tortures of the Inquisition were
insufficient to punish such temerity.

When it was objected that to rule or to live at the expense of
ignorance has another and somewhat ugly name and is punished by law
when the culprit is a single person, he would justify his position by
referring to other colonies. “We,” he would announce in his official
tone, “can speak out plainly! We’re not like the British and the Dutch
who, in order to hold people in subjection, make use of the lash. We
avail ourselves of other means, milder and surer. The salutary
influence of the friars is superior to the British lash.”

This last remark made his fortune. For a long time Ben-Zayb continued
to use adaptations of it, and with him all Manila. The thinking part of
Manila applauded it, and it even got to Madrid, where it was quoted in
the Parliament as from a liberal of long residence there. The friars,
flattered by the comparison and seeing their prestige enhanced, sent
him sacks of chocolate, presents which the incorruptible Don Custodio
returned, so that Ben-Zayb immediately compared him to Epaminondas.
Nevertheless, this modern Epaminondas made use of the rattan in his
choleric moments, and advised its use!

At that time the conventos, fearful that he would render a decision
favorable to the petition of the students, increased their gifts, so
that on the afternoon when we see him he was more perplexed than ever,
his reputation for energy was being compromised. It had been more than
a fortnight since he had had the petition in his hands, and only that
morning the high official, after praising his zeal, had asked for a
decision. Don Custodio had replied with mysterious gravity, giving him
to understand that it was not yet completed. The high official had
smiled a smile that still worried and haunted him.

As we were saying, he yawned and yawned. In one of these movements, at
the moment when he opened his eyes and closed his mouth, his attention
was caught by a file of red envelopes, arranged in regular order on a
magnificent kamagon desk. On the back of each could be read in large
letters: PROJECTS.

For a moment he forgot his troubles and Pepay’s pirouettes, to reflect
upon all that those files contained, which had issued from his prolific
brain in his hours of inspiration. How many original ideas, how many
sublime thoughts, how many means of ameliorating the woes of the
Philippines! Immortality and the gratitude of the country were surely
his!

Like an old lover who discovers a moldy package of amorous epistles,
Don Custodio arose and approached the desk. The first envelope, thick,
swollen, and plethoric, bore the title: PROJECTS IN PROJECT.

“No,” he murmured, “they’re excellent things, but it would take a year
to read them over.”

The second, also quite voluminous, was entitled: PROJECTS UNDER
CONSIDERATION. “No, not those either.”

Then came the PROJECTS NEARING COMPLETION, PROJECTS PRESENTED, PROJECTS
REJECTED, PROJECTS APPROVED, PROJECTS POSTPONED. These last envelopes
held little, but the least of all was that of the PROJECTS EXECUTED.

Don Custodio wrinkled up his nose—what did it contain? He had
completely forgotten what was in it. A sheet of yellowish paper showed
from under the flap, as though the envelope were sticking out its
tongue. This he drew out and unfolded: it was the famous project for
the School of Arts and Trades!

“What the devil!” he exclaimed. “If the Augustinian padres took charge
of it—”

Suddenly he slapped his forehead and arched his eyebrows, while a look
of triumph overspread his face. “I have reached a decision!” he cried
with an oath that was not exactly eureka. “My decision is made!”

Repeating his peculiar eureka five or six times, which struck the air
like so many gleeful lashes, he sat down at his desk, radiant with joy,
and began to write furiously.



CHAPTER XXI

MANILA TYPES


That night there was a grand function at the Teatro de Variedades. Mr.
Jouay’s French operetta company was giving its initial performance, Les
Cloches de Corneville. To the eyes of the public was to be exhibited
his select troupe, whose fame the newspapers had for days been
proclaiming. It was reported that among the actresses was a very
beautiful voice, with a figure even more beautiful, and if credit could
be given to rumor, her amiability surpassed even her voice and figure.

At half-past seven in the evening there were no more tickets to be had,
not even though they had been for Padre Salvi himself in his direct
need, and the persons waiting to enter the general admission already
formed a long queue. In the ticket-office there were scuffles and
fights, talk of filibusterism and races, but this did not produce any
tickets, so that by a quarter before eight fabulous prices were being
offered for them. The appearance of the building, profusely
illuminated, with flowers and plants in all the doors and windows,
enchanted the new arrivals to such an extent that they burst out into
exclamations and applause. A large crowd surged about the entrance,
gazing enviously at those going in, those who came early from fear of
missing their seats. Laughter, whispering, expectation greeted the
later arrivals, who disconsolately joined the curious crowd, and now
that they could not get in contented themselves with watching those who
did.

Yet there was one person who seemed out of place amid such great
eagerness and curiosity. He was a tall, meager man, who dragged one leg
stiffly when he walked, dressed in a wretched brown coat and dirty
checkered trousers that fitted his lean, bony limbs tightly. A straw
sombrero, artistic in spite of being broken, covered an enormous head
and allowed his dirty gray, almost red, hair to straggle out long and
kinky at the end like a poet’s curls. But the most notable thing about
this man was not his clothing or his European features, guiltless of
beard or mustache, but his fiery red face, from which he got the
nickname by which he was known, Camaroncocido. [46] He was a curious
character belonging to a prominent Spanish family, but he lived like a
vagabond and a beggar, scoffing at the prestige which he flouted
indifferently with his rags. He was reputed to be a kind of reporter,
and in fact his gray goggle-eyes, so cold and thoughtful, always showed
up where anything publishable was happening. His manner of living was a
mystery to all, as no one seemed to know where he ate and slept.
Perhaps he had an empty hogshead somewhere.

But at that moment Camaroncocido lacked his usual hard and indifferent
expression, something like mirthful pity being reflected in his looks.
A funny little man accosted him merrily.

“Friend!” exclaimed the latter, in a raucous voice, as hoarse as a
frog’s, while he displayed several Mexican pesos, which Camaroncocido
merely glanced at and then shrugged his shoulders. What did they matter
to him?

The little old man was a fitting contrast to him. Small, very small, he
wore on his head a high hat, which presented the appearance of a huge
hairy worm, and lost himself in an enormous frock coat, too wide and
too long for him, to reappear in trousers too short, not reaching below
his calves. His body seemed to be the grandfather and his legs the
grandchildren, while as for his shoes he appeared to be floating on the
land, for they were of an enormous sailor type, apparently protesting
against the hairy worm worn on his head with all the energy of a
convento beside a World’s Exposition. If Camaroncocido was red, he was
brown; while the former, although of Spanish extraction, had not a
single hair on his face, yet he, an Indian, had a goatee and mustache,
both long, white, and sparse. His expression was lively. He was known
as Tio Quico, [47] and like his friend lived on publicity, advertising
the shows and posting the theatrical announcements, being perhaps the
only Filipino who could appear with impunity in a silk hat and frock
coat, just as his friend was the first Spaniard who laughed at the
prestige of his race.

“The Frenchman has paid me well,” he said smiling and showing his
picturesque gums, which looked like a street after a conflagration. “I
did a good job in posting the bills.”

Camaroncocido shrugged his shoulders again. “Quico,” he rejoined in a
cavernous voice, “if they’ve given you six pesos for your work, how
much will they give the friars?”

Tio Quico threw back his head in his usual lively manner. “To the
friars?”

“Because you surely know,” continued Camaroncocido, “that all this
crowd was secured for them by the conventos.”

The fact was that the friars, headed by Padre Salvi, and some lay
brethren captained by Don Custodio, had opposed such shows. Padre
Camorra, who could not attend, watered at the eyes and mouth, but
argued with Ben-Zayb, who defended them feebly, thinking of the free
tickets they would send his newspaper. Don Custodio spoke of morality,
religion, good manners, and the like.

“But,” stammered the writer, “if our own farces with their plays on
words and phrases of double meaning—”

“But at least they’re in Castilian!” the virtuous councilor interrupted
with a roar, inflamed to righteous wrath. “Obscenities in French, man,
Ben-Zayb, for God’s sake, in French! Never!”

He uttered this never with the energy of three Guzmans threatened with
being killed like fleas if they did not surrender twenty Tarifas. Padre
Irene naturally agreed with Don Custodio and execrated French operetta.
Whew, he had been in Paris, but had never set foot in a theater, the
Lord deliver him!

Yet the French operetta also counted numerous partizans. The officers
of the army and navy, among them the General’s aides, the clerks, and
many society people were anxious to enjoy the delicacies of the French
language from the mouths of genuine Parisiennes, and with them were
affiliated those who had traveled by the M.M. [48] and had jabbered a
little French during the voyage, those who had visited Paris, and all
those who wished to appear learned.

Hence, Manila society was divided into two factions, operettists and
anti-operettists. The latter were supported by the elderly ladies,
wives jealous and careful of their husbands’ love, and by those who
were engaged, while those who were free and those who were beautiful
declared themselves enthusiastic operettists. Notes and then more notes
were exchanged, there were goings and comings, mutual recriminations,
meetings, lobbyings, arguments, even talk of an insurrection of the
natives, of their indolence, of inferior and superior races, of
prestige and other humbugs, so that after much gossip and more
recrimination, the permit was granted, Padre Salvi at the same time
publishing a pastoral that was read by no one but the proof-reader.
There were questionings whether the General had quarreled with the
Countess, whether she spent her time in the halls of pleasure, whether
His Excellency was greatly annoyed, whether there had been presents
exchanged, whether the French consul—, and so on and on. Many names
were bandied about: Quiroga the Chinaman’s, Simoun’s, and even those of
many actresses.

Thanks to these scandalous preliminaries, the people’s impatience had
been aroused, and since the evening before, when the troupe arrived,
there was talk of nothing but attending the first performance. From the
hour when the red posters announced Les Cloches de Corneville the
victors prepared to celebrate their triumph. In some offices, instead
of the time being spent in reading newspapers and gossiping, it was
devoted to devouring the synopsis and spelling out French novels, while
many feigned business outside to consult their pocket-dictionaries on
the sly. So no business was transacted, callers were told to come back
the next day, but the public could not take offense, for they
encountered some very polite and affable clerks, who received and
dismissed them with grand salutations in the French style. The clerks
were practising, brushing the dust off their French, and calling to one
another oui, monsieur, s’il vous plait, and pardon! at every turn, so
that it was a pleasure to see and hear them.

But the place where the excitement reached its climax was the newspaper
office. Ben-Zayb, having been appointed critic and translator of the
synopsis, trembled like a poor woman accused of witchcraft, as he saw
his enemies picking out his blunders and throwing up to his face his
deficient knowledge of French. When the Italian opera was on, he had
very nearly received a challenge for having mistranslated a tenor’s
name, while an envious rival had immediately published an article
referring to him as an ignoramus—him, the foremost thinking head in the
Philippines! All the trouble he had had to defend himself! He had had
to write at least seventeen articles and consult fifteen dictionaries,
so with these salutary recollections, the wretched Ben-Zayb moved about
with leaden hands, to say nothing of his feet, for that would be
plagiarizing Padre Camorra, who had once intimated that the journalist
wrote with them.

“You see, Quico?” said Camaroncocido. “One half of the people have come
because the friars told them not to, making it a kind of public
protest, and the other half because they say to themselves, ‘Do the
friars object to it? Then it must be instructive!’ Believe me, Quico,
your advertisements are a good thing but the pastoral was better, even
taking into consideration the fact that it was read by no one.”

“Friend, do you believe,” asked Tio Quico uneasily, “that on account of
the competition with Padre Salvi my business will in the future be
prohibited?”

“Maybe so, Quico, maybe so,” replied the other, gazing at the sky.
“Money’s getting scarce.”

Tio Quico muttered some incoherent words: if the friars were going to
turn theatrical advertisers, he would become a friar. After bidding his
friend good-by, he moved away coughing and rattling his silver coins.

With his eternal indifference Camaroncocido continued to wander about
here and there with his crippled leg and sleepy looks. The arrival of
unfamiliar faces caught his attention, coming as they did from
different parts and signaling to one another with a wink or a cough. It
was the first time that he had ever seen these individuals on such an
occasion, he who knew all the faces and features in the city. Men with
dark faces, humped shoulders, uneasy and uncertain movements, poorly
disguised, as though they had for the first time put on sack coats,
slipped about among the shadows, shunning attention, instead of getting
in the front rows where they could see well.

“Detectives or thieves?” Camaroncocido asked himself and immediately
shrugged his shoulders. “But what is it to me?”

The lamp of a carriage that drove up lighted in passing a group of four
or five of these individuals talking with a man who appeared to be an
army officer.

“Detectives! It must be a new corps,” he muttered with his shrug of
indifference. Soon, however, he noticed that the officer, after
speaking to two or three more groups, approached a carriage and seemed
to be talking vigorously with some person inside. Camaroncocido took a
few steps forward and without surprise thought that he recognized the
jeweler Simoun, while his sharp ears caught this short dialogue.

“The signal will be a gunshot!”

“Yes, sir.”

“Don’t worry—it’s the General who is ordering it, but be careful about
saying so. If you follow my instructions, you’ll get a promotion.”

“Yes, sir.”

“So, be ready!”

The voice ceased and a second later the carriage drove away. In spite
of his indifference Camaroncocido could not but mutter, “Something’s
afoot—hands on pockets!”

But feeling his own to be empty, he again shrugged his shoulders. What
did it matter to him, even though the heavens should fall?

So he continued his pacing about. On passing near two persons engaged
in conversation, he caught what one of them, who had rosaries and
scapularies around his neck, was saying in Tagalog: “The friars are
more powerful than the General, don’t be a fool! He’ll go away and
they’ll stay here. So, if we do well, we’ll get rich. The signal is a
gunshot.”

“Hold hard, hold hard,” murmured Camaroncocido, tightening his fingers.
“On that side the General, on this Padre Salvi. Poor country! But what
is it to me?”

Again shrugging his shoulders and expectorating at the same time, two
actions that with him were indications of supreme indifference, he
continued his observations.

Meanwhile, the carriages were arriving in dizzy streams, stopping
directly before the door to set down the members of the select society.
Although the weather was scarcely even cool, the ladies sported
magnificent shawls, silk neckerchiefs, and even light cloaks. Among the
escorts, some who were in frock coats with white ties wore overcoats,
while others carried them on their arms to display the rich silk
linings.

In a group of spectators, Tadeo, he who was always taken ill the moment
the professor appeared, was accompanied by a fellow townsman of his,
the novice whom we saw suffer evil consequences from reading wrongly
the Cartesian principle. This novice was very inquisitive and addicted
to tiresome questions, and Tadeo was taking advantage of his
ingenuousness and inexperience to relate to him the most stupendous
lies. Every Spaniard that spoke to him, whether clerkling or underling,
was presented as a leading merchant, a marquis, or a count, while on
the other hand any one who passed him by was a greenhorn, a petty
official, a nobody! When pedestrians failed him in keeping up the
novice’s astonishment, he resorted to the resplendent carriages that
came up. Tadeo would bow politely, wave his hand in a friendly manner,
and call out a familiar greeting.

“Who’s he?”

“Bah!” was the negligent reply. “The Civil Governor, the Vice-Governor,
Judge ——, Señora ——, all friends of mine!”

The novice marveled and listened in fascination, taking care to keep on
the left. Tadeo the friend of judges and governors!

Tadeo named all the persons who arrived, when he did not know them
inventing titles, biographies, and interesting sketches.

“You see that tall gentleman with dark whiskers, somewhat squint-eyed,
dressed in black—he’s Judge A ——, an intimate friend of the wife of
Colonel B ——. One day if it hadn’t been for me they would have come to
blows. Hello, here comes that Colonel! What if they should fight?”

The novice held his breath, but the colonel and the judge shook hands
cordially, the soldier, an old bachelor, inquiring about the health of
the judge’s family.

“Ah, thank heaven!” breathed Tadeo. “I’m the one who made them
friends.”

“What if they should invite us to go in?” asked the novice timidly.

“Get out, boy! I never accept favors!” retorted Tadeo majestically. “I
confer them, but disinterestedly.”

The novice bit his lip and felt smaller than ever, while he placed a
respectful distance between himself and his fellow townsman.

Tadeo resumed: “That is the musician H——; that one, the lawyer J——, who
delivered as his own a speech printed in all the books and was
congratulated and admired for it; Doctor K——, that man just getting out
of a hansom, is a specialist in diseases of children, so he’s called
Herod; that’s the banker L——, who can talk only of his money and his
hoards; the poet M——, who is always dealing with the stars and the
beyond. There goes the beautiful wife of N——, whom Padre Q——is
accustomed to meet when he calls upon the absent husband; the Jewish
merchant P——, who came to the islands with a thousand pesos and is now
a millionaire. That fellow with the long beard is the physician R——,
who has become rich by making invalids more than by curing them.”

“Making invalids?”

“Yes, boy, in the examination of the conscripts. Attention! That finely
dressed gentleman is not a physician but a homeopathist sui generis—he
professes completely the similis similibus. The young cavalry captain
with him is his chosen disciple. That man in a light suit with his hat
tilted back is the government clerk whose maxim is never to be polite
and who rages like a demon when he sees a hat on any one else’s
head—they say that he does it to ruin the German hatters. The man just
arriving with his family is the wealthy merchant C——, who has an income
of over a hundred thousand pesos. But what would you say if I should
tell you that he still owes me four pesos, five reales, and twelve
cuartos? But who would collect from a rich man like him?”

“That gentleman in debt to you?”

“Sure! One day I got him out of a bad fix. It was on a Friday at
half-past six in the morning, I still remember, because I hadn’t
breakfasted. That lady who is followed by a duenna is the celebrated
Pepay, the dancing girl, but she doesn’t dance any more now that a very
Catholic gentleman and a great friend of mine has—forbidden it. There’s
the death’s-head Z——, who’s surely following her to get her to dance
again. He’s a good fellow, and a great friend of mine, but has one
defect—he’s a Chinese mestizo and yet calls himself a Peninsular
Spaniard. Sssh! Look at Ben-Zayb, him with the face of a friar, who’s
carrying a pencil and a roll of paper in his hand. He’s the great
writer, Ben-Zayb, a good friend of mine—he has talent!”

“You don’t say! And that little man with white whiskers?”

“He’s the official who has appointed his daughters, those three little
girls, assistants in his department, so as to get their names on the
pay-roll. He’s a clever man, very clever! When he makes a mistake he
blames it on somebody else, he buys things and pays for them out of the
treasury. He’s clever, very, very clever!”

Tadeo was about to say more, but suddenly checked himself.

“And that gentleman who has a fierce air and gazes at everybody over
his shoulders?” inquired the novice, pointing to a man who nodded
haughtily.

But Tadeo did not answer. He was craning his neck to see Paulita Gomez,
who was approaching with a friend, Doña Victorina, and Juanito Pelaez.
The latter had presented her with a box and was more humped than ever.

Carriage after carriage drove up; the actors and actresses arrived and
entered by a separate door, followed by their friends and admirers.

After Paulita had gone in, Tadeo resumed: “Those are the nieces of the
rich Captain D——, those coming up in a landau; you see how pretty and
healthy they are? Well, in a few years they’ll be dead or crazy.
Captain D—— is opposed to their marrying, and the insanity of the uncle
is appearing in the nieces. That’s the Señorita E——, the rich heiress
whom the world and the conventos are disputing over. Hello, I know that
fellow! It’s Padre Irene, in disguise, with a false mustache. I
recognize him by his nose. And he was so greatly opposed to this!”

The scandalized novice watched a neatly cut coat disappear behind a
group of ladies.

“The Three Fates!” went on Tadeo, watching the arrival of three
withered, bony, hollow-eyed, wide-mouthed, and shabbily dressed women.
“They’re called—”

“Atropos?” ventured the novice, who wished to show that he also knew
somebody, at least in mythology.

“No, boy, they’re called the Weary Waiters—old, censorious, and dull.
They pretend to hate everybody—men, women, and children. But look how
the Lord always places beside the evil a remedy, only that sometimes it
comes late. There behind the Fates, the frights of the city, come those
three girls, the pride of their friends, among whom I count myself.
That thin young man with goggle-eyes, somewhat stooped, who is wildly
gesticulating because he can’t get tickets, is the chemist S——, author
of many essays and scientific treatises, some of which are notable and
have captured prizes. The Spaniards say of him, ‘There’s some hope for
him, some hope for him.’ The fellow who is soothing him with his
Voltairian smile is the poet T——, a young man of talent, a great friend
of mine, and, for the very reason that he has talent, he has thrown
away his pen. That fellow who is trying to get in with the actors by
the other door is the young physician U——, who has effected some
remarkable cures—it’s also said of him that he promises well. He’s not
such a scoundrel as Pelaez but he’s cleverer and slyer still. I believe
that he’d shake dice with death and win.”

“And that brown gentleman with a mustache like hog-bristles?”

“Ah, that’s the merchant F——, who forges everything, even his baptismal
certificate. He wants to be a Spanish mestizo at any cost, and is
making heroic efforts to forget his native language.”

“But his daughters are very white.”

“Yes, that’s the reason rice has gone up in price, and yet they eat
nothing but bread.”

The novice did not understand the connection between the price of rice
and the whiteness of those girls, but he held his peace.

“There goes the fellow that’s engaged to one of them, that thin brown
youth who is following them with a lingering movement and speaking with
a protecting air to the three friends who are laughing at him. He’s a
martyr to his beliefs, to his consistency.”

The novice was filled with admiration and respect for the young man.

“He has the look of a fool, and he is one,” continued Tadeo. “He was
born in San Pedro Makati and has inflicted many privations upon
himself. He scarcely ever bathes or eats pork, because, according to
him, the Spaniards don’t do those things, and for the same reason he
doesn’t eat rice and dried fish, although he may be watering at the
mouth and dying of hunger. Anything that comes from Europe, rotten or
preserved, he considers divine—a month ago Basilio cured him of a
severe attack of gastritis, for he had eaten a jar of mustard to prove
that he’s a European.”

At that moment the orchestra struck up a waltz.

“You see that gentleman—that hypochondriac who goes along turning his
head from side to side, seeking salutes? That’s the celebrated governor
of Pangasinan, a good man who loses his appetite whenever any Indian
fails to salute him. He would have died if he hadn’t issued the
proclamation about salutes to which he owes his celebrity. Poor fellow,
it’s only been three days since he came from the province and look how
thin he has become! Oh, here’s the great man, the illustrious—open your
eyes!”

“Who? That man with knitted brows?”

“Yes, that’s Don Custodio, the liberal, Don Custodio. His brows are
knit because he’s meditating over some important project. If the ideas
he has in his head were carried out, this would be a different world!
Ah, here comes Makaraig, your housemate.”

It was in fact Makaraig, with Pecson, Sandoval, and Isagani. Upon
seeing them, Tadeo advanced and spoke to them.

“Aren’t you coming in?” Makaraig asked him.

“We haven’t been able to get tickets.”

“Fortunately, we have a box,” replied Makaraig. “Basilio couldn’t come.
Both of you, come in with us.”

Tadeo did not wait for the invitation to be repeated, but the novice,
fearing that he would intrude, with the timidity natural to the
provincial Indian, excused himself, nor could he be persuaded to enter.



CHAPTER XXII

THE PERFORMANCE


The interior of the theater presented a lively aspect. It was filled
from top to bottom, with people standing in the corridors and in the
aisles, fighting to withdraw a head from some hole where they had
inserted it, or to shove an eye between a collar and an ear. The open
boxes, occupied for the most part by ladies, looked like baskets of
flowers, whose petals—the fans—shook in a light breeze, wherein hummed
a thousand bees. However, just as there are flowers of strong or
delicate fragrance, flowers that kill and flowers that console, so from
our baskets were exhaled like emanations: there were to be heard
dialogues, conversations, remarks that bit and stung. Three or four
boxes, however, were still vacant, in spite of the lateness of the
hour. The performance had been advertised for half-past eight and it
was already a quarter to nine, but the curtain did not go up, as his
Excellency had not yet arrived. The gallery-gods, impatient and
uncomfortable in their seats, started a racket, clapping their hands
and pounding the floor with their canes.

“Boom—boom—boom! Ring up the curtain! Boom—boom—boom!”

The artillerymen were not the least noisy. Emulators of Mars, as
Ben-Zayb called them, they were not satisfied with this music; thinking
themselves perhaps at a bullfight, they made remarks at the ladies who
passed before them in words that are euphemistically called flowers in
Madrid, although at times they seem more like foul weeds. Without
heeding the furious looks of the husbands, they bandied from one to
another the sentiments and longings inspired by so many beauties.

In the reserved seats, where the ladies seemed to be afraid to venture,
as few were to be seen there, a murmur of voices prevailed amid
suppressed laughter and clouds of tobacco smoke. They discussed the
merits of the players and talked scandal, wondering if his Excellency
had quarreled with the friars, if his presence at such a show was a
defiance or mere curiosity. Others gave no heed to these matters, but
were engaged in attracting the attention of the ladies, throwing
themselves into attitudes more or less interesting and statuesque,
flashing diamond rings, especially when they thought themselves the
foci of insistent opera-glasses, while yet another would address a
respectful salute to this or that señora or señorita, at the same time
lowering his head gravely to whisper to a neighbor, “How ridiculous she
is! And such a bore!”

The lady would respond with one of her most gracious smiles and an
enchanting nod of her head, while murmuring to a friend sitting near,
amid lazy flourishes of her fan, “How impudent he is! He’s madly in
love, my dear.”

Meanwhile, the noise increased. There remained only two vacant boxes,
besides that of his Excellency, which was distinguished by its curtains
of red velvet. The orchestra played another waltz, the audience
protested, when fortunately there arose a charitable hero to distract
their attention and relieve the manager, in the person of a man who had
occupied a reserved seat and refused to give it up to its owner, the
philosopher Don Primitivo. Finding his own arguments useless, Don
Primitivo had appealed to an usher. “I don’t care to,” the hero
responded to the latter’s protests, placidly puffing at his cigarette.
The usher appealed to the manager. “I don’t care to,” was the response,
as he settled back in the seat. The manager went away, while the
artillerymen in the gallery began to sing out encouragement to the
usurper.

Our hero, now that he had attracted general attention, thought that to
yield would be to lower himself, so he held on to the seat, while he
repeated his answer to a pair of guards the manager had called in.
These, in consideration of the rebel’s rank, went in search of their
corporal, while the whole house broke out into applause at the firmness
of the hero, who remained seated like a Roman senator.

Hisses were heard, and the inflexible gentleman turned angrily to see
if they were meant for him, but the galloping of horses resounded and
the stir increased. One might have said that a revolution had broken
out, or at least a riot, but no, the orchestra had suspended the waltz
and was playing the royal march: it was his Excellency, the
Captain-General and Governor of the islands, who was entering. All eyes
sought and followed him, then lost sight of him, until he finally
appeared in his box. After looking all about him and making some
persons happy with a lordly salute, he sat down, as though he were
indeed the man for whom the chair was waiting. The artillerymen then
became silent and the orchestra tore into the prelude.

Our students occupied a box directly facing that of Pepay, the dancing
girl. Her box was a present from Makaraig, who had already got on good
terms with her in order to propitiate Don Custodio. Pepay had that very
afternoon written a note to the illustrious arbiter, asking for an
answer and appointing an interview in the theater. For this reason, Don
Custodio, in spite of the active opposition he had manifested toward
the French operetta, had gone to the theater, which action won him some
caustic remarks on the part of Don Manuel, his ancient adversary in the
sessions of the Ayuntamiento.

“I’ve come to judge the operetta,” he had replied in the tone of a Cato
whose conscience was clear.

So Makaraig was exchanging looks of intelligence with Pepay, who was
giving him to understand that she had something to tell him. As the
dancing girl’s face wore a happy expression, the students augured that
a favorable outcome was assured. Sandoval, who had just returned from
making calls in other boxes, also assured them that the decision had
been favorable, that that very afternoon the Superior Commission had
considered and approved it. Every one was jubilant, even Pecson having
laid aside his pessimism when he saw the smiling Pepay display a note.
Sandoval and Makaraig congratulated one another, Isagani alone
remaining cold and unsmiling. What had happened to this young man?

Upon entering the theater, Isagani had caught sight of Paulita in a
box, with Juanito Pelaez talking to her. He had turned pale, thinking
that he must be mistaken. But no, it was she herself, she who greeted
him with a gracious smile, while her beautiful eyes seemed to be asking
pardon and promising explanations. The fact was that they had agreed
upon Isagani’s going first to the theater to see if the show contained
anything improper for a young woman, but now he found her there, and in
no other company than that of his rival. What passed in his mind is
indescribable: wrath, jealousy, humiliation, resentment raged within
him, and there were moments even when he wished that the theater would
fall in; he had a violent desire to laugh aloud, to insult his
sweetheart, to challenge his rival, to make a scene, but finally
contented himself with sitting quiet and not looking at her at all. He
was conscious of the beautiful plans Makaraig and Sandoval were making,
but they sounded like distant echoes, while the notes of the waltz
seemed sad and lugubrious, the whole audience stupid and foolish, and
several times he had to make an effort to keep back the tears. Of the
trouble stirred up by the hero who refused to give up the seat, of the
arrival of the Captain-General, he was scarcely conscious. He stared
toward the drop-curtain, on which was depicted a kind of gallery with
sumptuous red hangings, affording a view of a garden in which a
fountain played, yet how sad the gallery looked to him and how
melancholy the painted landscape! A thousand vague recollections surged
into his memory like distant echoes of music heard in the night, like
songs of infancy, the murmur of lonely forests and gloomy rivulets,
moonlit nights on the shore of the sea spread wide before his eyes. So
the enamored youth considered himself very wretched and stared fixedly
at the ceiling so that the tears should not fall from his eyes.

A burst of applause drew him from these meditations. The curtain had
just risen, and the merry chorus of peasants of Corneville was
presented, all dressed in cotton caps, with heavy wooden sabots on
their feet. Some six or seven girls, well-rouged on the lips and
cheeks, with large black circles around their eyes to increase their
brilliance, displayed white arms, fingers covered with diamonds, round
and shapely limbs. While they were chanting the Norman phrase “Allez,
marchez! Allez, marchez!” they smiled at their different admirers in
the reserved seats with such openness that Don Custodio, after looking
toward Pepay’s box to assure himself that she was not doing the same
thing with some other admirer, set down in his note-book this
indecency, and to make sure of it lowered his head a little to see if
the actresses were not showing their knees.

“Oh, these Frenchwomen!” he muttered, while his imagination lost itself
in considerations somewhat more elevated, as he made comparisons and
projects.

“Quoi v’la tous les cancans d’la s’maine!” sang Gertrude, a proud
damsel, who was looking roguishly askance at the Captain-General.

“We’re going to have the cancan!” exclaimed Tadeo, the winner of the
first prize in the French class, who had managed to make out this word.
“Makaraig, they’re going to dance the cancan!”

He rubbed his hands gleefully. From the moment the curtain rose, Tadeo
had been heedless of the music. He was looking only for the prurient,
the indecent, the immoral in actions and dress, and with his scanty
French was sharpening his ears to catch the obscenities that the
austere guardians of the fatherland had foretold.

Sandoval, pretending to know French, had converted himself into a kind
of interpreter for his friends. He knew as much about it as Tadeo, but
the published synopsis helped him and his fancy supplied the rest.
“Yes,” he said, “they’re going to dance the cancan—she’s going to lead
it.”

Makaraig and Pecson redoubled their attention, smiling in anticipation,
while Isagani looked away, mortified to think that Paulita should be
present at such a show and reflecting that it was his duty to challenge
Juanito Pelaez the next day.

But the young men waited in vain. Serpolette came on, a charming girl,
in her cotton cap, provoking and challenging. “Hein, qui parle de
Serpolette?” she demanded of the gossips, with her arms akimbo in a
combative attitude. Some one applauded, and after him all those in the
reserved seats. Without changing her girlish attitude, Serpolette gazed
at the person who had started the applause and paid him with a smile,
displaying rows of little teeth that looked like a string of pearls in
a case of red velvet.

Tadeo followed her gaze and saw a man in a false mustache with an
extraordinarily large nose. “By the monk’s cowl!” he exclaimed. “It’s
Irene!”

“Yes,” corroborated Sandoval, “I saw him behind the scenes talking with
the actresses.”

The truth was that Padre Irene, who was a melomaniac of the first
degree and knew French well, had been sent to the theater by Padre
Salvi as a sort of religious detective, or so at least he told the
persons who recognized him. As a faithful critic, who should not be
satisfied with viewing the piece from a distance, he wished to examine
the actresses at first hand, so he had mingled in the groups of
admirers and gallants, had penetrated into the greenroom, where was
whispered and talked a French required by the situation, a market
French, a language that is readily comprehensible for the vender when
the buyer seems disposed to pay well.

Serpolette was surrounded by two gallant officers, a sailor, and a
lawyer, when she caught sight of him moving about, sticking the tip of
his long nose into all the nooks and corners, as though with it he were
ferreting out all the mysteries of the stage. She ceased her chatter,
knitted her eyebrows, then raised them, opened her lips and with the
vivacity of a Parisienne left her admirers to hurl herself like a
torpedo upon our critic.

“Tiens, tiens, Toutou! Mon lapin!” she cried, catching Padre Irene’s
arm and shaking it merrily, while the air rang with her silvery laugh.

“Tut, tut!” objected Padre Irene, endeavoring to conceal himself.

“Mais, comment! Toi ici, grosse bête! Et moi qui t’croyais—”

“’Tais pas d’tapage, Lily! Il faut m’respecter! ’Suis ici l’Pape!”

With great difficulty Padre Irene made her listen to reason, for Lily
was enchanteé to meet in Manila an old friend who reminded her of the
coulisses of the Grand Opera House. So it was that Padre Irene,
fulfilling at the same time his duties as a friend and a critic, had
initiated the applause to encourage her, for Serpolette deserved it.

Meanwhile, the young men were waiting for the cancan. Pecson became all
eyes, but there was everything except cancan. There was presented the
scene in which, but for the timely arrival of the representatives of
the law, the women would have come to blows and torn one another’s hair
out, incited thereto by the mischievous peasants, who, like our
students, hoped to see something more than the cancan.


        Scit, scit, scit, scit, scit, scit,
        Disputez-vous, battez-vous,
        Scit, scit, scit, scit, scit, scit,
        Nous allons compter les coups.


The music ceased, the men went away, the women returned, a few at a
time, and started a conversation among themselves, of which our friends
understood nothing. They were slandering some absent person.

“They look like the Chinamen of the pansiteria!” whispered Pecson.

“But, the cancan?” asked Makaraig.

“They’re talking about the most suitable place to dance it,” gravely
responded Sandoval.

“They look like the Chinamen of the pansiteria,” repeated Pecson in
disgust.

A lady accompanied by her husband entered at that moment and took her
place in one of the two vacant boxes. She had the air of a queen and
gazed disdainfully at the whole house, as if to say, “I’ve come later
than all of you, you crowd of upstarts and provincials, I’ve come later
than you!” There are persons who go to the theater like the contestants
in a mule-race: the last one in, wins, and we know very sensible men
who would ascend the scaffold rather than enter a theater before the
first act. But the lady’s triumph was of short duration—she caught
sight of the other box that was still empty, and began to scold her
better half, thus starting such a disturbance that many were annoyed.

“Ssh! Ssh!”

“The blockheads! As if they understood French!” remarked the lady,
gazing with supreme disdain in all directions, finally fixing her
attention on Juanito’s box, whence she thought she had heard an
impudent hiss.

Juanito was in fact guilty, for he had been pretending to understand
everything, holding himself up proudly and applauding at times as
though nothing that was said escaped him, and this too without guiding
himself by the actors’ pantomime, because he scarcely looked toward the
stage. The rogue had intentionally remarked to Paulita that, as there
was so much more beautiful a woman close at hand, he did not care to
strain his eyes looking beyond her. Paulita had blushed, covered her
face with her fan, and glanced stealthily toward where Isagani, silent
and morose, was abstractedly watching the show.

Paulita felt nettled and jealous. Would Isagani fall in love with any
of those alluring actresses? The thought put her in a bad humor, so she
scarcely heard the praises that Doña Victorina was heaping upon her own
favorite.

Juanito was playing his part well: he shook his head at times in sign
of disapproval, and then there could be heard coughs and murmurs in
some parts, at other times he smiled in approbation, and a second later
applause resounded. Doña Victorina was charmed, even conceiving some
vague ideas of marrying the young man the day Don Tiburcio should
die—Juanito knew French and De Espadaña didn’t! Then she began to
flatter him, nor did he perceive the change in the drift of her talk,
so occupied was he in watching a Catalan merchant who was sitting next
to the Swiss consul. Having observed that they were conversing in
French, Juanito was getting his inspiration from their countenances,
and thus grandly giving the cue to those about him.

Scene followed scene, character succeeded character, comic and
ridiculous like the bailiff and Grenicheux, imposing and winsome like
the marquis and Germaine. The audience laughed heartily at the slap
delivered by Gaspard and intended for the coward Grenicheux, which was
received by the grave bailiff, whose wig went flying through the air,
producing disorder and confusion as the curtain dropped.

“Where’s the cancan?” inquired Tadeo.

But the curtain rose again immediately, revealing a scene in a servant
market, with three posts on which were affixed signs bearing the
announcements: servantes, cochers, and domestiques. Juanito, to improve
the opportunity, turned to Doña Victorina and said in a loud voice, so
that Paulita might hear and be convinced of his learning:

“Servantes means servants, domestiques domestics.”

“And in what way do the servantes differ from the domestiques?” asked
Paulita.

Juanito was not found wanting. “Domestiques are those that are
domesticated—haven’t you noticed that some of them have the air of
savages? Those are the servantes.”

“That’s right,” added Doña Victorina, “some have very bad manners—and
yet I thought that in Europe everybody was cultivated. But as it
happens in France,—well, I see!”

“Ssh! Ssh!”

But what was Juanito’s predicament when the time came for the opening
of the market and the beginning of the sale, and the servants who were
to be hired placed themselves beside the signs that indicated their
class! The men, some ten or twelve rough characters in livery, carrying
branches in their hands, took their place under the sign domestiques!

“Those are the domestics,” explained Juanito.

“Really, they have the appearance of being only recently domesticated,”
observed Doña Victorina. “Now let’s have a look at the savages.”

Then the dozen girls headed by the lively and merry Serpolette, decked
out in their best clothes, each wearing a big bouquet of flowers at the
waist, laughing, smiling, fresh and attractive, placed themselves, to
Juanito’s great desperation, beside the post of the servantes.

“How’s this?” asked Paulita guilelessly. “Are those the savages that
you spoke of?”

“No,” replied the imperturbable Juanito, “there’s a mistake—they’ve got
their places mixed—those coming behind—”

“Those with the whips?”

Juanito nodded assent, but he was rather perplexed and uneasy.

“So those girls are the cochers?”

Here Juanito was attacked by such a violent fit of coughing that some
of the spectators became annoyed.

“Put him out! Put the consumptive out!” called a voice.

Consumptive! To be called a consumptive before Paulita! Juanito wanted
to find the blackguard and make him swallow that “consumptive.”
Observing that the women were trying to hold him back, his bravado
increased, and he became more conspicuously ferocious. But fortunately
it was Don Custodio who had made the diagnosis, and he, fearful of
attracting attention to himself, pretended to hear nothing, apparently
busy with his criticism of the play.

“If it weren’t that I am with you,” remarked Juanito, rolling his eyes
like some dolls that are moved by clockwork, and to make the
resemblance more real he stuck out his tongue occasionally.

Thus that night he acquired in Doña Victorina’s eyes the reputation of
being brave and punctilious, so she decided in her heart that she would
marry him just as soon as Don Tiburcio was out of the way. Paulita
became sadder and sadder in thinking about how the girls called cochers
could occupy Isagani’s attention, for the name had certain disagreeable
associations that came from the slang of her convent school-days.

At length the first act was concluded, the marquis taking away as
servants Serpolette and Germaine, the representative of timid beauty in
the troupe, and for coachman the stupid Grenicheux. A burst of applause
brought them out again holding hands, those who five seconds before had
been tormenting one another and were about to come to blows, bowing and
smiling here and there to the gallant Manila public and exchanging
knowing looks with various spectators.

While there prevailed the passing tumult occasioned by those who
crowded one another to get into the greenroom and felicitate the
actresses and by those who were going to make calls on the ladies in
the boxes, some expressed their opinions of the play and the players.

“Undoubtedly, Serpolette is the best,” said one with a knowing air.

“I prefer Germaine, she’s an ideal blonde.”

“But she hasn’t any voice.”

“What do I care about the voice?”

“Well, for shape, the tall one.”

“Pshaw,” said Ben-Zayb, “not a one is worth a straw, not a one is an
artist!”

Ben-Zayb was the critic for El Grito de la Integridad, and his
disdainful air gave him great importance in the eyes of those who were
satisfied with so little.

“Serpolette hasn’t any voice, nor Germaine grace, nor is that music,
nor is it art, nor is it anything!” he concluded with marked contempt.
To set oneself up as a great critic there is nothing like appearing to
be discontented with everything. Besides, the management had sent only
two seats for the newspaper staff.

In the boxes curiosity was aroused as to who could be the possessor of
the empty one, for that person, would surpass every one in chic, since
he would be the last to arrive. The rumor started somewhere that it
belonged to Simoun, and was confirmed: no one had seen the jeweler in
the reserved seats, the greenroom, or anywhere else.

“Yet I saw him this afternoon with Mr. Jouay,” some one said. “He
presented a necklace to one of the actresses.”

“To which one?” asked some of the inquisitive ladies.

“To the finest of all, the one who made eyes at his Excellency.”

This information was received with looks of intelligence, winks,
exclamations of doubt, of confirmation, and half-uttered commentaries.

“He’s trying to play the Monte Cristo,” remarked a lady who prided
herself on being literary.

“Or purveyor to the Palace!” added her escort, jealous of Simoun.

In the students’ box, Pecson, Sandoval, and Isagani had remained, while
Tadeo had gone to engage Don Custodio in conversation about his
projects, and Makaraig to hold an interview with Pepay.

“In no way, as I have observed to you before, friend Isagani,” declared
Sandoval with violent gestures and a sonorous voice, so that the ladies
near the box, the daughters of the rich man who was in debt to Tadeo,
might hear him, “in no way does the French language possess the rich
sonorousness or the varied and elegant cadence of the Castilian tongue.
I cannot conceive, I cannot imagine, I cannot form any idea of French
orators, and I doubt that they have ever had any or can have any now in
the strict construction of the term orator, because we must not confuse
the name orator with the words babbler and charlatan, for these can
exist in any country, in all the regions of the inhabited world, among
the cold and curt Englishmen as among the lively and impressionable
Frenchmen.”

Thus he delivered a magnificent review of the nations, with his
poetical characterizations and most resounding epithets. Isagani nodded
assent, with his thoughts fixed on Paulita, whom he had surprised
gazing at him with an expressive look which contained a wealth of
meaning. He tried to divine what those eyes were expressing—those eyes
that were so eloquent and not at all deceptive.

“Now you who are a poet, a slave to rhyme and meter, a son of the
Muses,” continued Sandoval, with an elegant wave of his hand, as though
he were saluting, on the horizon, the Nine Sisters, “do you comprehend,
can you conceive, how a language so harsh and unmusical as French can
give birth to poets of such gigantic stature as our Garcilasos, our
Herreras, our Esproncedas, our Calderons?”

“Nevertheless,” objected Pecson, “Victor Hugo—”

“Victor Hugo, my friend Pecson, if Victor Hugo is a poet, it is because
he owes it to Spain, because it is an established fact, it is a matter
beyond all doubt, a thing admitted even by the Frenchmen themselves, so
envious of Spain, that if Victor Hugo has genius, if he really is a
poet, it is because his childhood was spent in Madrid; there he drank
in his first impressions, there his brain was molded, there his
imagination was colored, his heart modeled, and the most beautiful
concepts of his mind born. And after all, who is Victor Hugo? Is he to
be compared at all with our modern—”

This peroration was cut short by the return of Makaraig with a
despondent air and a bitter smile on his lips, carrying in his hand a
note, which he offered silently to Sandoval, who read:


   “MY DOVE: Your letter has reached me late, for I have already
    handed in my decision, and it has been approved. However, as if I
    had guessed your wish, I have decided the matter according to the
    desires of your protégés. I’ll be at the theater and wait for you
    after the performance.

        “Your duckling,

            “CUSTODINING.”


“How tender the man is!” exclaimed Tadeo with emotion.

“Well?” said Sandoval. “I don’t see anything wrong about this—quite the
reverse!”

“Yes,” rejoined Makaraig with his bitter smile, “decided favorably!
I’ve just seen Padre Irene.”

“What does Padre Irene say?” inquired Pecson.

“The same as Don Custodio, and the rascal still had the audacity to
congratulate me. The Commission, which has taken as its own the
decision of the arbiter, approves the idea and felicitates the students
on their patriotism and their thirst for knowledge—”

“Well?”

“Only that, considering our duties—in short, it says that in order that
the idea may not be lost, it concludes that the direction and execution
of the plan should be placed in charge of one of the religious
corporations, in case the Dominicans do not wish to incorporate the
academy with the University.”

Exclamations of disappointment greeted the announcement. Isagani rose,
but said nothing.

“And in order that we may participate in the management of the
academy,” Makaraig went on, “we are intrusted with the collection of
contributions and dues, with the obligation of turning them over to the
treasurer whom the corporation may designate, which treasurer will
issue us receipts.”

“Then we’re tax-collectors!” remarked Tadeo.

“Sandoval,” said Pecson, “there’s the gauntlet—take it up!”

“Huh! That’s not a gauntlet—from its odor it seems more like a sock.”

“The funniest, part of it,” Makaraig added, “is that Padre Irene has
advised us to celebrate the event with a banquet or a torchlight
procession—a public demonstration of the students en masse to render
thanks to all the persons who have intervened in the affair.”

“Yes, after the blow, let’s sing and give thanks. Super flumina
Babylonis sedimus!”

“Yes, a banquet like that of the convicts,” said Tadeo.

“A banquet at which we all wear mourning and deliver funeral orations,”
added Sandoval.

“A serenade with the Marseillaise and funeral marches,” proposed
Isagani.

“No, gentlemen,” observed Pecson with his clownish grin, “to celebrate
the event there’s nothing like a banquet in a pansitería, served by the
Chinamen without camisas. I insist, without camisas!”

The sarcasm and grotesqueness of this idea won it ready acceptance,
Sandoval being the first to applaud it, for he had long wished to see
the interior of one of those establishments which at night appeared to
be so merry and cheerful.

Just as the orchestra struck up for the second act, the young men arose
and left the theater, to the scandal of the whole house.



CHAPTER XXIII

A CORPSE


Simoun had not, in fact, gone to the theater. Already, at seven o’clock
in the evening, he had left his house looking worried and gloomy. His
servants saw him return twice, accompanied by different individuals,
and at eight o’clock Makaraig encountered him pacing along Calle
Hospital near the nunnery of St. Clara, just when the bells of its
church were ringing a funeral knell. At nine Camaroncocido saw him
again, in the neighborhood of the theater, speak with a person who
seemed to be a student, pay the latter’s admission to the show, and
again disappear among the shadows of the trees.

“What is it to me?” again muttered Camaroncocido. “What do I get out of
watching over the populace?”

Basilio, as Makaraig said, had not gone to the show. The poor student,
after returning from San Diego, whither he had gone to ransom Juli, his
future bride, from her servitude, had turned again to his studies,
spending his time in the hospital, in studying, or in nursing Capitan
Tiago, whose affliction he was trying to cure.

The invalid had become an intolerable character. During his bad spells,
when he felt depressed from lack of opium, the doses of which Basilio
was trying to reduce, he would scold, mistreat, and abuse the boy, who
bore it resignedly, conscious that he was doing good to one to whom he
owed so much, and yielded only in the last extremity. His vicious
appetite satisfied, Capitan Tiago would fall into a good humor, become
tender, and call him his son, tearfully recalling the youth’s services,
how well he administered the estates, and would even talk of making him
his heir. Basilio would smile bitterly and reflect that in this world
complaisance with vice is rewarded better than fulfilment of duty. Not
a few times did he feel tempted to give free rein to the craving and
conduct his benefactor to the grave by a path of flowers and smiling
illusions rather than lengthen his life along a road of sacrifice.

“What a fool I am!” he often said to himself. “People are stupid and
then pay for it.”

But he would shake his head as he thought of Juli, of the wide future
before him. He counted upon living without a stain on his conscience,
so he continued the treatment prescribed, and bore everything
patiently.

Yet with all his care the sick man, except for short periods of
improvement, grew worse. Basilio had planned gradually to reduce the
amount of the dose, or at least not to let him injure himself by
increasing it, but on returning from the hospital or some visit he
would find his patient in the heavy slumber produced by the opium,
driveling, pale as a corpse. The young man could not explain whence the
drug came: the only two persons who visited the house were Simoun and
Padre Irene, the former rarely, while the latter never ceased exhorting
him to be severe and inexorable with the treatment, to take no notice
of the invalid’s ravings, for the main object was to save him.

“Do your duty, young man,” was Padre Irene’s constant admonition. “Do
your duty.” Then he would deliver a sermon on this topic with such
great conviction and enthusiasm that Basilio would begin to feel kindly
toward the preacher. Besides, Padre Irene promised to get him a fine
assignment, a good province, and even hinted at the possibility of
having him appointed a professor. Without being carried away by
illusions, Basilio pretended to believe in them and went on obeying the
dictates of his own conscience.

That night, while Les Cloches de Corneville was being presented,
Basilio was studying at an old table by the light of an oil-lamp, whose
thick glass globe partly illuminated his melancholy features. An old
skull, some human bones, and a few books carefully arranged covered the
table, whereon there was also a pan of water with a sponge. The smell
of opium that proceeded from the adjoining bedroom made the air heavy
and inclined him to sleep, but he overcame the desire by bathing his
temples and eyes from time to time, determined not to go to sleep until
he had finished the book, which he had borrowed and must return as soon
as possible. It was a volume of the Medicina Legal y Toxicología of Dr.
Friata, the only book that the professor would use, and Basilio lacked
money to buy a copy, since, under the pretext of its being forbidden by
the censor in Manila and the necessity for bribing many government
employees to get it in, the booksellers charged a high price for it.

So absorbed wras the youth in his studies that he had not given any
attention at all to some pamphlets that had been sent to him from some
unknown source, pamphlets that treated of the Philippines, among which
figured those that were attracting the greatest notice at the time
because of their harsh and insulting manner of referring to the natives
of the country. Basilio had no time to open them, and he was perhaps
restrained also by the thought that there is nothing pleasant about
receiving an insult or a provocation without having any means of
replying or defending oneself. The censorship, in fact, permitted
insults to the Filipinos but prohibited replies on their part.

In the midst of the silence that reigned in the house, broken only by a
feeble snore that issued now and then from the adjoining bedroom,
Basilio heard light footfalls on the stairs, footfalls that soon
crossed the hallway and approached the room where he was. Raising his
head, he saw the door open and to his great surprise appeared the
sinister figure of the jeweler Simoun, who since the scene in San Diego
had not come to visit either himself or Capitan Tiago.

“How is the sick man?” he inquired, throwing a rapid glance about the
room and fixing his attention on the pamphlets, the leaves of which
were still uncut.

“The beating of his heart is scarcely perceptible, his pulse is very
weak, his appetite entirely gone,” replied Basilio in a low voice with
a sad smile. “He sweats profusely in the early morning.”

Noticing that Simoun kept his face turned toward the pamphlets and
fearing that he might reopen the subject of their conversation in the
wood, he went on: “His system is saturated with poison. He may die any
day, as though struck by lightning. The least irritation, any
excitement may kill him.”

“Like the Philippines!” observed Simoun lugubriously.

Basilio was unable to refrain from a gesture of impatience, but he was
determined not to recur to the old subject, so he proceeded as if he
had heard nothing: “What weakens him the most is the nightmares, his
terrors—”

“Like the government!” again interrupted Simoun.

“Several nights ago he awoke in the dark and thought that he had gone
blind. He raised a disturbance, lamenting and scolding me, saying that
I had put his eyes out. When I entered his room with a light he mistook
me for Padre Irene and called me his saviour.”

“Like the government, exactly!”

“Last night,” continued Basilio, paying no attention, “he got up
begging for his favorite game-cock, the one that died three years ago,
and I had to give him a chicken. Then he heaped blessings upon me and
promised me many thousands—”

At that instant a clock struck half-past ten. Simoun shuddered and
stopped the youth with a gesture.

“Basilio,” he said in a low, tense voice, “listen to me carefully, for
the moments are precious. I see that you haven’t opened the pamphlets
that I sent you. You’re not interested in your country.”

The youth started to protest.

“It’s useless,” went on Simoun dryly. “Within an hour the revolution is
going to break out at a signal from me, and tomorrow there’ll be no
studies, there’ll be no University, there’ll be nothing but fighting
and butchery. I have everything ready and my success is assured. When
we triumph, all those who could have helped us and did not do so will
be treated as enemies. Basilio, I’ve come to offer you death or a
future!”

“Death or a future!” the boy echoed, as though he did not understand.

“With us or with the government,” rejoined Simoun. “With your country
or with your oppressors. Decide, for time presses! I’ve come to save
you because of the memories that unite us!”

“With my country or with the oppressors!” repeated Basilio in a low
tone. The youth was stupefied. He gazed at the jeweler with eyes in
which terror was reflected, he felt his limbs turn cold, while a
thousand confused ideas whirled about in his mind. He saw the streets
running blood, he heard the firing, he found himself among the dead and
wounded, and by the peculiar force of his inclinations fancied himself
in an operator’s blouse, cutting off legs and extracting bullets.

“The will of the government is in my hands,” said Simoun. “I’ve
diverted and wasted its feeble strength and resources on foolish
expeditions, dazzling it with the plunder it might seize. Its heads are
now in the theater, calm and unsuspecting, thinking of a night of
pleasure, but not one shall again repose upon a pillow. I have men and
regiments at my disposition: some I have led to believe that the
uprising is ordered by the General; others that the friars are bringing
it about; some I have bought with promises, with employments, with
money; many, very many, are acting from revenge, because they are
oppressed and see it as a matter of killing or being killed. Cabesang
Tales is below, he has come with me here! Again I ask you—will you come
with us or do you prefer to expose yourself to the resentment of my
followers? In critical moments, to declare oneself neutral is to be
exposed to the wrath of both the contending parties.”

Basilio rubbed his hand over his face several times, as if he were
trying to wake from a nightmare. He felt that his brow was cold.

“Decide!” repeated Simoun.

“And what—what would I have to do?” asked the youth in a weak and
broken voice.

“A very simple thing,” replied Simoun, his face lighting up with a ray
of hope. “As I have to direct the movement, I cannot get away from the
scene of action. I want you, while the attention of the whole city is
directed elsewhere, at the head of a company to force the doors of the
nunnery of St. Clara and take from there a person whom only you,
besides myself and Capitan Tiago, can recognize. You’ll run no risk at
all.”

“Maria Clara!” exclaimed Basilio.

“Yes, Maria Clara,” repeated Simoun, and for the first time his voice
became human and compassionate. “I want to save her; to save her I have
wished to live, I have returned. I am starting the revolution, because
only a revolution can open the doors of the nunneries.”

“Ay!” sighed Basilio, clasping his hands. “You’ve come late, too late!”

“Why?” inquired Simoun with a frown.

“Maria Clara is dead!”

Simoun arose with a bound and stood over the youth. “She’s dead?” he
demanded in a terrible voice.

“This afternoon, at six. By now she must be—”

“It’s a lie!” roared Simoun, pale and beside himself. “It’s false!
Maria Clara lives, Maria Clara must live! It’s a cowardly excuse! She’s
not dead, and this night I’ll free her or tomorrow you die!”

Basilio shrugged his shoulders. “Several days ago she was taken ill and
I went to the nunnery for news of her. Look, here is Padre Salvi’s
letter, brought by Padre Irene. Capitan Tiago wept all the evening,
kissing his daughter’s picture and begging her forgiveness, until at
last he smoked an enormous quantity of opium. This evening her knell
was tolled.”

“Ah!” exclaimed Simoun, pressing his hands to his head and standing
motionless. He remembered to have actually heard the knell while he was
pacing about in the vicinity of the nunnery.

“Dead!” he murmured in a voice so low that it seemed to be a ghost
whispering. “Dead! Dead without my having seen her, dead without
knowing that I lived for her—dead!”

Feeling a terrible storm, a tempest of whirlwind and thunder without a
drop of water, sobs without tears, cries without words, rage in his
breast and threaten to burst out like burning lava long repressed, he
rushed precipitately from the room. Basilio heard him descend the
stairs with unsteady tread, stepping heavily, he heard a stifled cry, a
cry that seemed to presage death, so solemn, deep, and sad that he
arose from his chair pale and trembling, but he could hear the
footsteps die away and the noisy closing of the door to the street.

“Poor fellow!” he murmured, while his eyes filled with tears. Heedless
now of his studies, he let his gaze wander into space as he pondered
over the fate of those two beings: he—young, rich, educated, master of
his fortunes, with a brilliant future before him; she—fair as a dream,
pure, full of faith and innocence, nurtured amid love and laughter,
destined to a happy existence, to be adored in the family and respected
in the world; and yet of those two beings, filled with love, with
illusions and hopes, by a fatal destiny he wandered over the world,
dragged ceaselessly through a whirl of blood and tears, sowing evil
instead of doing good, undoing virtue and encouraging vice, while she
was dying in the mysterious shadows of the cloister where she had
sought peace and perhaps found suffering, where she entered pure and
stainless and expired like a crushed flower!

Sleep in peace, ill-starred daughter of my hapless fatherland! Bury in
the grave the enchantments of youth, faded in their prime! When a
people cannot offer its daughters a tranquil home under the protection
of sacred liberty, when a man can only leave to his widow blushes,
tears to his mother, and slavery to his children, you do well to
condemn yourself to perpetual chastity, stifling within you the germ of
a future generation accursed! Well for you that you have not to shudder
in your grave, hearing the cries of those who groan in darkness, of
those who feel that they have wings and yet are fettered, of those who
are stifled from lack of liberty! Go, go with your poet’s dreams into
the regions of the infinite, spirit of woman dim-shadowed in the
moonlight’s beam, whispered in the bending arches of the bamboo-brakes!
Happy she who dies lamented, she who leaves in the heart that loves her
a pure picture, a sacred remembrance, unspotted by the base passions
engendered by the years! Go, we shall remember you! In the clear air of
our native land, under its azure sky, above the billows of the lake set
amid sapphire hills and emerald shores, in the crystal streams shaded
by the bamboos, bordered by flowers, enlivened by the beetles and
butterflies with their uncertain and wavering flight as though playing
with the air, in the silence of our forests, in the singing of our
rivers, in the diamond showers of our waterfalls, in the resplendent
light of our moon, in the sighs of the night breeze, in all that may
call up the vision of the beloved, we must eternally see you as we
dreamed of you, fair, beautiful, radiant with hope, pure as the light,
yet still sad and melancholy in the contemplation of our woes!



CHAPTER XXIV

DREAMS

                                                  Amor, qué astro eres?


On the following day, Thursday, at the hour of sunset, Isagani was
walking along the beautiful promenade of Maria Cristina in the
direction of the Malecon to keep an appointment which Paulita had that
morning given him. The young man had no doubt that they were to talk
about what had happened on the previous night, and as he was determined
to ask for an explanation, and knew how proud and haughty she was, he
foresaw an estrangement. In view of this eventuality he had brought
with him the only two letters he had ever received from Paulita, two
scraps of paper, whereon were merely a few hurriedly written lines with
various blots, but in an even handwriting, things that did not prevent
the enamored youth from preserving them with more solicitude than if
they had been the autographs of Sappho and the Muse Polyhymnia.

This decision to sacrifice his love on the altar of dignity, the
consciousness of suffering in the discharge of duty, did not prevent a
profound melancholy from taking possession of Isagani and brought back
into his mind the beautiful days, and nights more beautiful still, when
they had whispered sweet nothings through the flowered gratings of the
entresol, nothings that to the youth took on such a character of
seriousness and importance that they seemed to him the only matters
worthy of meriting the attention of the most exalted human
understanding. He recalled the walks on moonlit nights, the fair, the
dark December mornings after the mass of Nativity, the holy water that
he used to offer her, when she would thank him with a look charged with
a whole epic of love, both of them trembling as their fingers touched.
Heavy sighs, like small rockets, issued from his breast and brought
back to him all the verses, all the sayings of poets and writers about
the inconstancy of woman. Inwardly he cursed the creation of theaters,
the French operetta, and vowed to get revenge on Pelaez at the first
opportunity. Everything about him appeared under the saddest and
somberest colors: the bay, deserted and solitary, seemed more solitary
still on account of the few steamers that were anchored in it; the sun
was dying behind Mariveles without poetry or enchantment, without the
capricious and richly tinted clouds of happier evenings; the Anda
monument, in bad taste, mean and squat, without style, without
grandeur, looked like a lump of ice-cream or at best a chunk of cake;
the people who were promenading along the Malecon, in spite of their
complacent and contented air, appeared distant, haughty, and vain;
mischievous and bad-mannered, the boys that played on the beach,
skipping flat stones over the surface of the water or searching in the
sand for mollusks and crustaceans which they caught for the mere fun of
catching and killed without benefit to themselves; in short, even the
eternal port works to which he had dedicated more than three odes,
looked to him absurd, ridiculous child’s play.

The port, ah, the port of Manila, a bastard that since its conception
had brought tears of humiliation and shame to all! If only after so
many tears there were not being brought forth a useless abortion!

Abstractedly he saluted two Jesuits, former teachers of his, and
scarcely noticed a tandem in which an American rode and excited the
envy of the gallants who were in calesas only. Near the Anda monument
he heard Ben-Zayb talking with another person about Simoun, learning
that the latter had on the previous night been taken suddenly ill, that
he refused to see any one, even the very aides of the General. “Yes!”
exclaimed Isagani with a bitter smile, “for him attentions because he
is rich. The soldiers return from their expeditions sick and wounded,
but no one visits them.”

Musing over these expeditions, over the fate of the poor soldiers, over
the resistance offered by the islanders to the foreign yoke, he thought
that, death for death, if that of the soldiers was glorious because
they were obeying orders, that of the islanders was sublime because
they were defending their homes. [49]

“A strange destiny, that of some peoples!” he mused. “Because a
traveler arrives at their shores, they lose their liberty and become
subjects and slaves, not only of the traveler, not only of his heirs,
but even of all his countrymen, and not for a generation, but for all
time! A strange conception of justice! Such a state of affairs gives
ample right to exterminate every foreigner as the most ferocious
monster that the sea can cast up!”

He reflected that those islanders, against whom his country was waging
war, after all were guilty of no crime other than that of weakness. The
travelers also arrived at the shores of other peoples, but finding them
strong made no display of their strange pretension. With all their
weakness the spectacle they presented seemed beautiful to him, and the
names of the enemies, whom the newspapers did not fail to call cowards
and traitors, appeared glorious to him, as they succumbed with glory
amid the ruins of their crude fortifications, with greater glory even
than the ancient Trojan heroes, for those islanders had carried away no
Philippine Helen! In his poetic enthusiasm he thought of the young men
of those islands who could cover themselves with glory in the eyes of
their women, and in his amorous desperation he envied them because they
could find a brilliant suicide.

“Ah, I should like to die,” he exclaimed, “be reduced to nothingness,
leave to my native land a glorious name, perish in its cause, defending
it from foreign invasion, and then let the sun afterwards illumine my
corpse, like a motionless sentinel on the rocks of the sea!”

The conflict with the Germans [50] came into his mind and he almost
felt sorry that it had been adjusted: he would gladly have died for the
Spanish-Filipino banner before submitting to the foreigner.

“Because, after all,” he mused, “with Spain we are united by firm
bonds—the past, history, religion, language—”

Language, yes, language! A sarcastic smile curled his lips. That very
night they would hold a banquet in the pansitería to celebrate the
demise of the academy of Castilian.

“Ay!” he sighed, “provided the liberals in Spain are like those we have
here, in a little while the mother country will be able to count the
number of the faithful!”

Slowly the night descended, and with it melancholy settled more heavily
upon the heart of the young man, who had almost lost hope of seeing
Paulita. The promenaders one by one left the Malecon for the Luneta,
the music from which was borne to him in snatches of melodies on the
fresh evening breeze; the sailors on a warship anchored in the river
performed their evening drill, skipping about among the slender ropes
like spiders; the boats one by one lighted their lamps, thus giving
signs of life; while the beach,


        Do el viento riza las calladas olas
        Que con blando murmullo en la ribera
        Se deslizan veloces por sí solas. [51]


as Alaejos says, exhaled in the distance thin, vapors that the moon,
now at its full, gradually converted into mysterious transparent gauze.

A distant sound became audible, a noise that rapidly approached.
Isagani turned his head and his heart began to beat violently. A
carriage was coming, drawn by white horses, the white horses that he
would know among a hundred thousand. In the carriage rode Paulita and
her friend of the night before, with Doña Victorina.

Before the young man could take a step, Paulita had leaped to the
ground with sylph-like agility and smiled at him with a smile full of
conciliation. He smiled in return, and it seemed to him that all the
clouds, all the black thoughts that before had beset him, vanished like
smoke, the sky lighted up, the breeze sang, flowers covered the grass
by the roadside. But unfortunately Doña Victorina was there and she
pounced upon the young man to ask him for news of Don Tiburcio, since
Isagani had undertaken to discover his hiding-place by inquiry among
the students he knew.

“No one has been able to tell me up to now,” he answered, and he was
telling the truth, for Don Tiburcio was really hidden in the house of
the youth’s own uncle, Padre Florentino.

“Let him know,” declared Doña Victorina furiously, “that I’ll call in
the Civil Guard. Alive or dead, I want to know where he is—because one
has to wait ten years before marrying again.”

Isagani gazed at her in fright—Doña Victorina was thinking of
remarrying! Who could the unfortunate be?

“What do you think of Juanito Pelaez?” she asked him suddenly.

Juanito! Isagani knew not what to reply. He was tempted to tell all the
evil he knew of Pelaez, but a feeling of delicacy triumphed in his
heart and he spoke well of his rival, for the very reason that he was
such. Doña Victorina, entirely satisfied and becoming enthusiastic,
then broke out into exaggerations of Pelaez’s merits and was already
going to make Isagani a confidant of her new passion when Paulita’s
friend came running to say that the former’s fan had fallen among the
stones of the beach, near the Malecon. Stratagem or accident, the fact
is that this mischance gave an excuse for the friend to remain with the
old woman, while Isagani might talk with Paulita. Moreover, it was a
matter of rejoicing to Doña Victorina, since to get Juanito for herself
she was favoring Isagani’s love.

Paulita had her plan ready. On thanking him she assumed the role of the
offended party, showed resentment, and gave him to understand that she
was surprised to meet him there when everybody was on the Luneta, even
the French actresses.

“You made the appointment for me, how could I be elsewhere?”

“Yet last night you did not even notice that I was in the theater. I
was watching you all the time and you never took your eyes off those
cochers.”

So they exchanged parts: Isagani, who had come to demand explanations,
found himself compelled to give them and considered himself very happy
when Paulita said that she forgave him. In regard to her presence at
the theater, he even had to thank her for that: forced by her aunt, she
had decided to go in the hope of seeing him during the performance.
Little she cared for Juanito Pelaez!

“My aunt’s the one who is in love with him,” she said with a merry
laugh.

Then they both laughed, for the marriage of Pelaez with Doña Victorina
made them really happy, and they saw it already an accomplished fact,
until Isagani remembered that Don Tiburcio was still living and
confided the secret to his sweetheart, after exacting her promise that
she would tell no one. Paulita promised, with the mental reservation of
relating it to her friend.

This led the conversation to Isagani’s town, surrounded by forests,
situated on the shore of the sea which roared at the base of the high
cliffs. Isagani’s gaze lighted up when he spoke of that obscure spot, a
flush of pride overspread his cheeks, his voice trembled, his poetic
imagination glowed, his words poured forth burning, charged with
enthusiasm, as if he were talking of love to his love, and he could not
but exclaim:

“Oh, in the solitude of my mountains I feel free, free as the air, as
the light that shoots unbridled through space! A thousand cities, a
thousand palaces, would I give for that spot in the Philippines, where,
far from men, I could feel myself to have genuine liberty. There, face
to face with nature, in the presence of the mysterious and the
infinite, the forest and the sea, I think, speak, and work like a man
who knows not tyrants.”

In the presence of such enthusiasm for his native place, an enthusiasm
that she did not comprehend, for she was accustomed to hear her country
spoken ill of, and sometimes joined in the chorus herself, Paulita
manifested some jealousy, as usual making herself the offended party.

But Isagani very quickly pacified her. “Yes,” he said, “I loved it
above all things before I knew you! It was my delight to wander through
the thickets, to sleep in the shade of the trees, to seat myself upon a
cliff to take in with my gaze the Pacific which rolled its blue waves
before me, bringing to me echoes of songs learned on the shores of free
America. Before knowing you, that sea was for me my world, my delight,
my love, my dream! When it slept in calm with the sun shining overhead,
it was my delight to gaze into the abyss hundreds of feet below me,
seeking monsters in the forests of madrepores and coral that were
revealed through the limpid blue, enormous serpents that the country
folk say leave the forests to dwell in the sea, and there take on
frightful forms. Evening, they say, is the time when the sirens appear,
and I saw them between the waves—so great was my eagerness that once I
thought I could discern them amid the foam, busy in their divine
sports, I distinctly heard their songs, songs of liberty, and I made
out the sounds of their silvery harps. Formerly I spent hours and hours
watching the transformations in the clouds, or gazing at a solitary
tree in the plain or a high rock, without knowing why, without being
able to explain the vague feelings they awoke in me. My uncle used to
preach long sermons to me, and fearing that I would become a
hypochondriac, talked of placing me under a doctor’s care. But I met
you, I loved you, and during the last vacation it seemed that something
was lacking there, the forest was gloomy, sad the river that glides
through the shadows, dreary the sea, deserted the sky. Ah, if you
should go there once, if your feet should press those paths, if you
should stir the waters of the rivulet with your fingers, if you should
gaze upon the sea, sit upon the cliff, or make the air ring with your
melodious songs, my forest would be transformed into an Eden, the
ripples of the brook would sing, light would burst from the dark
leaves, into diamonds would be converted the dewdrops and into pearls
the foam of the sea.”

But Paulita had heard that to reach Isagani’s home it was necessary to
cross mountains where little leeches abounded, and at the mere thought
of them the little coward shivered convulsively. Humored and petted,
she declared that she would travel only in a carriage or a railway
train.

Having now forgotten all his pessimism and seeing only thornless roses
about him, Isagani answered, “Within a short time all the islands are
going to be crossed with networks of iron rails.


      “‘Por donde rápidas
        Y voladoras
        Locomotoras
        Corriendo irán,’ [52]


as some one said. Then the most beautiful spots of the islands will be
accessible to all.”

“Then, but when? When I’m an old woman?”

“Ah, you don’t know what we can do in a few years,” replied the youth.
“You don’t realize the energy and enthusiasm that are awakening in the
country after the sleep of centuries. Spain heeds us; our young men in
Madrid are working day and night, dedicating to the fatherland all
their intelligence, all their time, all their strength. Generous voices
there are mingled with ours, statesmen who realize that there is no
better bond than community of thought and interest. Justice will be
meted out to us, and everything points to a brilliant future for all.
It’s true that we’ve just met with a slight rebuff, we students, but
victory is rolling along the whole line, it is in the consciousness of
all! The traitorous repulse that we have suffered indicates the last
gasp, the final convulsions of the dying. Tomorrow we shall be citizens
of the Philippines, whose destiny will be a glorious one, because it
will be in loving hands. Ah, yes, the future is ours! I see it
rose-tinted, I see the movement that stirs the life of these regions so
long dead, lethargic. I see towns arise along the railroads, and
factories everywhere, edifices like that of Mandaloyan! I hear the
steam hiss, the trains roar, the engines rattle! I see the smoke
rise—their heavy breathing; I smell the oil—the sweat of monsters busy
at incessant toil. This port, so slow and laborious of creation, this
river where commerce is in its death agony, we shall see covered with
masts, giving us an idea of the forests of Europe in winter. This pure
air, and these stones, now so clean, will be crowded with coal, with
boxes and barrels, the products of human industry, but let it not
matter, for we shall move about rapidly in comfortable coaches to seek
in the interior other air, other scenes on other shores, cooler
temperatures on the slopes of the mountains. The warships of our navy
will guard our coasts, the Spaniard and the Filipino will rival each
other in zeal to repel all foreign invasion, to defend our homes, and
let you bask in peace and smiles, loved and respected. Free from the
system of exploitation, without hatred or distrust, the people will
labor because then labor will cease to be a despicable thing, it will
no longer be servile, imposed upon a slave. Then the Spaniard will not
embitter his character with ridiculous pretensions of despotism, but
with a frank look and a stout heart we shall extend our hands to one
another, and commerce, industry, agriculture, the sciences, will
develop under the mantle of liberty, with wise and just laws, as in
prosperous England.” [53]

Paulita smiled dubiously and shook her head. “Dreams, dreams!” she
sighed. “I’ve heard it said that you have many enemies. Aunt says that
this country must always be enslaved.”

“Because your aunt is a fool, because she can’t live without slaves!
When she hasn’t them she dreams of them in the future, and if they are
not obtainable she forces them into her imagination. True it is that we
have enemies, that there will be a struggle, but we shall conquer. The
old system may convert the ruins of its castle into formless
barricades, but we will take them singing hymns of liberty, in the
light of the eyes of you women, to the applause of your lovely hands.
But do not be uneasy—the struggle will be a pacific one. Enough that
you spur us to zeal, that you awake in us noble and elevated thoughts
and encourage us to constancy, to heroism, with your affection for our
reward.”

Paulita preserved her enigmatic smile and seemed thoughtful, as she
gazed toward the river, patting her cheek lightly with her fan. “But if
you accomplish nothing?” she asked abstractedly.

The question hurt Isagani. He fixed his eyes on his sweetheart, caught
her lightly by the hand, and began: “Listen, if we accomplish nothing—”

He paused in doubt, then resumed: “You know how I love you, how I adore
you, you know that I feel myself a different creature when your gaze
enfolds me, when I surprise in it the flash of love, but yet if we
accomplish nothing, I would dream of another look of yours and would
die happy, because the light of pride could burn in your eyes when you
pointed to my corpse and said to the world: ‘My love died fighting for
the rights of my fatherland!’ ”

“Come home, child, you’re going to catch cold,” screeched Doña
Victorina at that instant, and the voice brought them back to reality.
It was time to return, and they kindly invited him to enter the
carriage, an invitation which the young man did not give them cause to
repeat. As it was Paulita’s carriage, naturally Doña Victorina and the
friend occupied the back seat, while the two lovers sat on the smaller
one in front.

To ride in the same carriage, to have her at his side, to breathe her
perfume, to rub against the silk of her dress, to see her pensive with
folded arms, lighted by the moon of the Philippines that lends to the
meanest things idealism and enchantment, were all dreams beyond
Isagani’s hopes! What wretches they who were returning alone on foot
and had to give way to the swift carriage! In the whole course of the
drive, along the beach and down the length of La Sabana, across the
Bridge of Spain, Isagani saw nothing but a sweet profile, gracefully
set off by beautiful hair, ending in an arching neck that lost itself
amid the gauzy piña. A diamond winked at him from the lobe of the
little ear, like a star among silvery clouds. He heard faint echoes
inquiring for Don Tiburcio de Espadaña, the name of Juanito Pelaez, but
they sounded to him like distant bells, the confused noises heard in a
dream. It was necessary to tell him that they had reached Plaza Santa
Cruz.



CHAPTER XXV

SMILES AND TEARS


The sala of the Pansiteria Macanista de Buen Gusto [54] that night
presented an extraordinary aspect. Fourteen young men of the principal
islands of the archipelago, from the pure Indian (if there be pure
ones) to the Peninsular Spaniard, were met to hold the banquet advised
by Padre Irene in view of the happy solution of the affair about
instruction in Castilian. They had engaged all the tables for
themselves, ordered the lights to be increased, and had posted on the
wall beside the landscapes and Chinese kakemonos this strange versicle:

“GLORY TO CUSTODIO FOR HIS CLEVERNESS AND PANSIT ON EABTH TO THE YOUTHS
OF GOOD WILL.”

In a country where everything grotesque is covered with a mantle of
seriousness, where many rise by the force of wind and hot air, in a
country where the deeply serious and sincere may do damage on issuing
from the heart and may cause trouble, probably this was the best way to
celebrate the ingenious inspiration of the illustrious Don Custodio.
The mocked replied to the mockery with a laugh, to the governmental
joke with a plate of pansit, and yet—!

They laughed and jested, but it could be seen that the merriment was
forced. The laughter had a certain nervous ring, eyes flashed, and in
more than one of these a tear glistened. Nevertheless, these young men
were cruel, they were unreasonable! It was not the first time that
their most beautiful ideas had been so treated, that their hopes had
been defrauded with big words and small actions: before this Don
Custodio there had been many, very many others.

In the center of the room under the red lanterns were placed four round
tables, systematically arranged to form a square. Little wooden stools,
equally round, served as seats. In the middle of each table, according
to the practise of the establishment, were arranged four small colored
plates with four pies on each one and four cups of tea, with the
accompanying dishes, all of red porcelain. Before each seat was a
bottle and two glittering wine-glasses.

Sandoval was curious and gazed about scrutinizing everything, tasting
the food, examining the pictures, reading the bill of fare. The others
conversed on the topics of the day: about the French actresses, about
the mysterious illness of Simoun, who, according to some, had been
found wounded in the street, while others averred that he had attempted
to commit suicide. As was natural, all lost themselves in conjectures.
Tadeo gave his particular version, which according to him came from a
reliable source: Simoun had been assaulted by some unknown person in
the old Plaza Vivac, [55] the motive being revenge, in proof of which
was the fact that Simoun himself refused to make the least explanation.
From this they proceeded to talk of mysterious revenges, and naturally
of monkish pranks, each one relating the exploits of the curate of his
town.

A notice in large black letters crowned the frieze of the room with
this warning:


        De esta fonda el cabecilla
        Al publico advierte
        Que nada dejen absolutamente
        Sobre alguna mesa ó silla. [56]


“What a notice!” exclaimed Sandoval. “As if he might have confidence in
the police, eh? And what verses! Don Tiburcio converted into a
quatrain—two feet, one longer than the other, between two crutches! If
Isagani sees them, he’ll present them to his future aunt.”

“Here’s Isagani!” called a voice from the stairway. The happy youth
appeared radiant with joy, followed by two Chinese, without camisas,
who carried on enormous waiters tureens that gave out an appetizing
odor. Merry exclamations greeted them.

Juanito Pelaez was missing, but the hour fixed had already passed, so
they sat down happily to the tables. Juanito was always unconventional.

“If in his place we had invited Basilio,” said Tadeo, “we should have
been better entertained. We might have got him drunk and drawn some
secrets from him.”

“What, does the prudent Basilio possess secrets?”

“I should say so!” replied Tadeo. “Of the most important kind. There
are some enigmas to which he alone has the key: the boy who
disappeared, the nun—”

“Gentlemen, the pansit lang-lang is the soup par excellence!” cried
Makaraig. “As you will observe, Sandoval, it is composed of vermicelli,
crabs or shrimps, egg paste, scraps of chicken, and I don’t know what
else. As first-fruits, let us offer the bones to Don Custodio, to see
if he will project something with them.”

A burst of merry laughter greeted this sally.

“If he should learn—”

“He’d come a-running!” concluded Sandoval. “This is excellent soup—what
is it called?”

“Pansit lang-lang, that is, Chinese pansit, to distinguish it from that
which is peculiar to this country.”

“Bah! That’s a hard name to remember. In honor of Don Custodio, I
christen it the soup project!”

“Gentlemen,” said Makaraig, who had prepared the menu, “there are three
courses yet. Chinese stew made of pork—”

“Which should be dedicated to Padre Irene.”

“Get out! Padre Irene doesn’t eat pork, unless he turns his nose away,”
whispered a young man from Iloilo to his neighbor.

“Let him turn his nose away!”

“Down with Padre Irene’s nose,” cried several at once.

“Respect, gentlemen, more respect!” demanded Pecson with comic gravity.

“The third course is a lobster pie—”

“Which should be dedicated to the friars,” suggested he of the Visayas.

“For the lobsters’ sake,” added Sandoval.

“Right, and call it friar pie!”

The whole crowd took this up, repeating in concert, “Friar pie!”

“I protest in the name of one of them,” said Isagani.

“And I, in the name of the lobsters,” added Tadeo.

“Respect, gentlemen, more respect!” again demanded Pecson with a full
mouth.

“The fourth is stewed pansit, which is dedicated—to the government and
the country!”

All turned toward Makaraig, who went on: “Until recently, gentlemen,
the pansit was believed to be Chinese or Japanese, but the fact is
that, being unknown in China or Japan, it would seem to be Filipino,
yet those who prepare it and get the benefit from it are the
Chinese—the same, the very, very same that happens to the government
and to the Philippines: they seem to be Chinese, but whether they are
or not, the Holy Mother has her doctors—all eat and enjoy it, yet
characterize it as disagreeable and loathsome, the same as with the
country, the same as with the government. All live at its cost, all
share in its feast, and afterwards there is no worse country than the
Philippines, there is no government more imperfect. Let us then
dedicate the pansit to the country and to the government.”

“Agreed!” many exclaimed.

“I protest!” cried Isagani.

“Respect for the weaker, respect for the victims,” called Pecson in a
hollow voice, waving a chicken-bone in the air.

“Let’s dedicate the pansit to Quiroga the Chinaman, one of the four
powers of the Filipino world,” proposed Isagani.

“No, to his Black Eminence.”

“Silence!” cautioned one mysteriously. “There are people in the plaza
watching us, and walls have ears.”

True it was that curious groups were standing by the windows, while the
talk and laughter in the adjoining houses had ceased altogether, as if
the people there were giving their attention to what was occurring at
the banquet. There was something extraordinary about the silence.

“Tadeo, deliver your speech,” Makaraig whispered to him.

It had been agreed that Sandoval, who possessed the most oratorical
ability, should deliver the last toast as a summing up.

Tadeo, lazy as ever, had prepared nothing, so he found himself in a
quandary. While disposing of a long string of vermicelli, he meditated
how to get out of the difficulty, until he recalled a speech learned in
school and decided to plagiarize it, with adulterations.

“Beloved brethren in project!” he began, gesticulating with two Chinese
chop-sticks.

“Brute! Keep that chop-stick out of my hair!” cried his neighbor.

“Called by you to fill the void that has been left in—”

“Plagiarism!” Sandoval interrupted him. “That speech was delivered by
the president of our lyceum.”

“Called by your election,” continued the imperturbable Tadeo, “to fill
the void that has been left in my mind”—pointing to his stomach—“by a
man famous for his Christian principles and for his inspirations and
projects, worthy of some little remembrance, what can one like myself
say of him, I who am very hungry, not having breakfasted?”

“Have a neck, my friend!” called a neighbor, offering that portion of a
chicken.

“There is one course, gentlemen, the treasure of a people who are today
a tale and a mockery in the world, wherein have thrust their hands the
greatest gluttons of the western regions of the earth—” Here he pointed
with his chopsticks to Sandoval, who was struggling with a refractory
chicken-wing.

“And eastern!” retorted the latter, describing a circle in the air with
his spoon, in order to include all the banqueters.

“No interruptions!”

“I demand the floor!”

“I demand pickles!” added Isagani.

“Bring on the stew!”

All echoed this request, so Tadeo sat down, contented with having got
out of his quandary.

The dish consecrated to Padre Irene did not appear to be extra good, as
Sandoval cruelly demonstrated thus: “Shining with grease outside and
with pork inside! Bring on the third course, the friar pie!”

The pie was not yet ready, although the sizzling of the grease in the
frying-pan could be heard. They took advantage of the delay to drink,
begging Pecson to talk.

Pecson crossed himself gravely and arose, restraining his clownish
laugh with an effort, at the same time mimicking a certain Augustinian
preacher, then famous, and beginning in a murmur, as though he were
reading a text.

“Si tripa plena laudal Deum, tripa famelica laudabit fratres—if the
full stomach praises God, the hungry stomach will praise the friars.
Words spoken by the Lord Custodio through the mouth of Ben-Zayb, in the
journal El Grito de la Integridad, the second article, absurdity the
one hundred and fifty-seventh.

“Beloved brethren in Christ: Evil blows its foul breath over the
verdant shores of Frailandia, commonly called the Philippine
Archipelago. No day passes but the attack is renewed, but there is
heard some sarcasm against the reverend, venerable, infallible
corporations, defenseless and unsupported. Allow me, brethren, on this
occasion to constitute myself a knight-errant to sally forth in defense
of the unprotected, of the holy corporations that have reared us, thus
again confirming the saving idea of the adage—a full stomach praises
God, which is to say, a hungry stomach will praise the friars.”

“Bravo, bravo!”

“Listen,” said Isagani seriously, “I want you to understand that,
speaking of friars, I respect one.”

Sandoval was getting merry, so he began to sing a shady couplet about
the friars.

“Hear me, brethren!” continued Pecson. “Turn your gaze toward the happy
days of your infancy, endeavor to analyze the present and ask
yourselves about the future. What do you find? Friars, friars, and
friars! A friar baptized you, confirmed you, visited you in school with
loving zeal; a friar heard your first secret; he was the first to bring
you into communion with God, to set your feet upon the pathway of life;
friars were your first and friars will be your last teachers; a friar
it is who opens the hearts of your sweethearts, disposing them to heed
your sighs; a friar marries you, makes you travel over different
islands to afford you changes of climate and diversion; he will attend
your death-bed, and even though you mount the scaffold, there will the
friar be to accompany you with his prayers and tears, and you may rest
assured that he will not desert you until he sees you thoroughly dead.
Nor does his charity end there—dead, he will then endeavor to bury you
with all pomp, he will fight that your corpse pass through the church
to receive his supplications, and he will only rest satisfied when he
can deliver you into the hands of the Creator, purified here on earth,
thanks to temporal punishments, tortures, and humiliations. Learned in
the doctrines of Christ, who closes heaven against the rich, they, our
redeemers and genuine ministers of the Saviour, seek every means to
lift away our sins and bear them far, far off, there where the accursed
Chinese and Protestants dwell, to leave us this air, limpid, pure,
healthful, in such a way that even should we so wish afterwards, we
could not find a real to bring about our condemnation.

“If, then, their existence is necessary to our happiness, if
wheresoever we turn we must encounter their delicate hands, hungering
for kisses, that every day smooth the marks of abuse from our
countenances, why not adore them and fatten them—why demand their
impolitic expulsion? Consider for a moment the immense void that their
absence would leave in our social system. Tireless workers, they
improve and propagate the races! Divided as we are, thanks to our
jealousies and our susceptibilities, the friars unite us in a common
lot, in a firm bond, so firm that many are unable to move their elbows.
Take away the friar, gentlemen, and you will see how the Philippine
edifice will totter; lacking robust shoulders and hairy limbs to
sustain it, Philippine life will again become monotonous, without the
merry note of the playful and gracious friar, without the booklets and
sermons that split our sides with laughter, without the amusing
contrast between grand pretensions and small brains, without the
actual, daily representations of the tales of Boccaccio and La
Fontaine! Without the girdles and scapularies, what would you have our
women do in the future—save that money and perhaps become miserly and
covetous? Without the masses, novenaries, and processions, where will
you find games of panguingui to entertain them in their hours of
leisure? They would then have to devote themselves to their household
duties and instead of reading diverting stories of miracles, we should
then have to get them works that are not extant.

“Take away the friar and heroism will disappear, the political virtues
will fall under the control of the vulgar. Take him away and the Indian
will cease to exist, for the friar is the Father, the Indian is the
Word! The former is the sculptor, the latter the statue, because all
that we are, think, or do, we owe to the friar—to his patience, his
toil, his perseverance of three centuries to modify the form Nature
gave us. The Philippines without the friar and without the Indian—what
then would become of the unfortunate government in the hands of the
Chinamen?”

“It will eat lobster pie,” suggested Isagani, whom Pecson’s speech
bored.

“And that’s what we ought to be doing. Enough of speeches!”

As the Chinese who should have served the courses did not put in his
appearance, one of the students arose and went to the rear, toward the
balcony that overlooked the river. But he returned at once, making
mysterious signs.

“We’re watched! I’ve seen Padre Sibyla’s pet!”

“Yes?” ejaculated Isagani, rising.

“It’s no use now. When he saw me he disappeared.”

Approaching the window he looked toward the plaza, then made signs to
his companions to come nearer. They saw a young man leave the door of
the pansitería, gaze all about him, then with some unknown person enter
a carriage that waited at the curb. It was Simoun’s carriage.

“Ah!” exclaimed Makaraig. “The slave of the Vice-Rector attended by the
Master of the General!”



CHAPTER XXVI

PASQUINADES


Very early the next morning Basilio arose to go to the hospital. He had
his plans made: to visit his patients, to go afterwards to the
University to see about his licentiateship, and then have an interview
with Makaraig about the expense this would entail, for he had used up
the greater part of his savings in ransoming Juli and in securing a
house where she and her grandfather might live, and he had not dared to
apply to Capitan Tiago, fearing that such a move would be construed as
an advance on the legacy so often promised him.

Preoccupied with these thoughts, he paid no attention to the groups of
students who were at such an early hour returning from the Walled City,
as though the classrooms had been closed, nor did he even note the
abstracted air of some of them, their whispered conversations, or the
mysterious signals exchanged among them. So it was that when he reached
San Juan de Dios and his friends asked him about the conspiracy, he
gave a start, remembering what Simoun had planned, but which had
miscarried, owing to the unexplained accident to the jeweler.
Terrified, he asked in a trembling voice, at the same time endeavoring
to feign ignorance, “Ah, yes, what conspiracy?”

“It’s been discovered,” replied one, “and it seems that many are
implicated in it.”

With an effort Basilio controlled himself. “Many implicated?” he
echoed, trying to learn something from the looks of the others. “Who?”

“Students, a lot of students.”

Basilio did not think it prudent to ask more, fearing that he would
give himself away, so on the pretext of visiting his patients he left
the group. One of the clinical professors met him and placing his hand
mysteriously on the youth’s shoulder—the professor was a friend of
his—asked him in a low voice, “Were you at that supper last night?”

In his excited frame of mind Basilio thought the professor had said
night before last, which was the time of his interview with Simoun. He
tried to explain. “I assure you,” he stammered, “that as Capitan Tiago
was worse—and besides I had to finish that book—”

“You did well not to attend it,” said the professor. “But you’re a
member of the students’ association?”

“I pay my dues.”

“Well then, a piece of advice: go home at once and destroy any papers
you have that may compromise you.”

Basilio shrugged his shoulders—he had no papers, nothing more than his
clinical notes.

“Has Señor Simoun—”

“Simoun has nothing to do with the affair, thank God!” interrupted the
physician. “He was opportunely wounded by some unknown hand and is now
confined to his bed. No, other hands are concerned in this, but hands
no less terrible.”

Basilio drew a breath of relief. Simoun was the only one who could
compromise him, although he thought of Cabesang Tales.

“Are there tulisanes—”

“No, man, nothing more than students.”

Basilio recovered his serenity. “What has happened then?” he made bold
to ask.

“Seditious pasquinades have been found; didn’t you know about them?”

“Where?”

“In the University.”

“Nothing more than that?”

“Whew! What more do you want?” asked the professor, almost in a rage.
“The pasquinades are attributed to the students of the association—but,
keep quiet!”

The professor of pathology came along, a man who had more the look of a
sacristan than of a physician. Appointed by the powerful mandate of the
Vice-Rector, without other merit than unconditional servility to the
corporation, he passed for a spy and an informer in the eyes of the
rest of the faculty.

The first professor returned his greeting coldly, and winked to
Basilio, as he said to him, “Now I know that Capitan Tiago smells like
a corpse—the crows and vultures have been gathering around him.” So
saying, he went inside.

Somewhat calmed, Basilio now ventured to inquire for more details, but
all that he could learn was that pasquinades had been found on the
doors of the University, and that the Vice-Rector had ordered them to
be taken down and sent to the Civil Government. It was said that they
were filled with threats of assassination, invasion, and other
braggadocio.

The students made their comments on the affair. Their information came
from the janitor, who had it from a servant in Santo Tomas, who had it
from an usher. They prognosticated future suspensions and
imprisonments, even indicating who were to be the victims—naturally the
members of the association.

Basilio then recalled Simoun’s words: “The day in which they can get
rid of you, you will not complete your course.”

“Could he have known anything?” he asked himself. “We’ll see who is the
most powerful.”

Recovering his serenity, he went on toward the University, to learn
what attitude it behooved him to take and at the same time to see about
his licentiateship. He passed along Calle Legazpi, then down through
Beaterio, and upon arriving at the corner of this street and Calle
Solana saw that something important must indeed have happened. Instead
of the former lively, chattering groups on the sidewalks were to be
seen civil-guards making the students move on, and these latter issuing
from the University silent, some gloomy, some agitated, to stand off at
a distance or make their way home.

The first acquaintance he met was Sandoval, but Basilio called to him
in vain. He seemed to have been smitten deaf. “Effect of fear on the
gastro-intestinal juices,” thought Basilio.

Later he met Tadeo, who wore a Christmas face—at last that eternal
holiday seemed to be realized.

“What has happened, Tadeo?”

“We’ll have no school, at least for a week, old man! Sublime!
Magnificent!” He rubbed his hands in glee.

“But what has happened?”

“They’re going to arrest all of us in the association.”

“And are you glad of that?”

“There’ll be no school, there’ll be no school!” He moved away almost
bursting with joy.

Basilio saw Juanito Pelaez approaching, pale and suspicious. This time
his hump had reached its maximum, so great was his haste to get away.
He had been one of the most active promoters of the association while
things were running smoothly.

“Eh, Pelaez, what’s happened?”

“Nothing, I know nothing. I didn’t have anything to do with it,” he
responded nervously. “I was always telling you that these things were
quixotisms. It’s the truth, you know I’ve said so to you?”

Basilio did not remember whether he had said so or not, but to humor
him replied, “Yes, man, but what’s happened?”

“It’s the truth, isn’t it? Look, you’re a witness: I’ve always been
opposed—you’re a witness, don’t forget it!”

“Yes, man, but what’s going on?”

“Listen, you’re a witness! I’ve never had anything to do with the
members of the association, except to give them advice. You’re not
going to deny it now. Be careful, won’t you?”

“No, no, I won’t deny it, but for goodness’ sake, what has happened?”

But Juanito was already far away. He had caught a glimpse of a guard
approaching and feared arrest.

Basilio then went on toward the University to see if perhaps the
secretary’s office might be open and if he could glean any further
news. The office was closed, but there was an extraordinary commotion
in the building. Hurrying up and down the stairways were friars, army
officers, private persons, old lawyers and doctors, there doubtless to
offer their services to the endangered cause.

At a distance he saw his friend Isagani, pale and agitated, but radiant
with youthful ardor, haranguing some fellow students with his voice
raised as though he cared little that he be heard by everybody.

“It seems preposterous, gentlemen, it seems unreal, that an incident so
insignificant should scatter us and send us into flight like sparrows
at whom a scarecrow has been shaken! But is this the first time that
students have gone to prison for the sake of liberty? Where are those
who have died, those who have been shot? Would you apostatize now?”

“But who can the fool be that wrote such pasquinades?” demanded an
indignant listener.

“What does that matter to us?” rejoined Isagani. “We don’t have to find
out, let them find out! Before we know how they are drawn up, we have
no need to make any show of agreement at a time like this. There where
the danger is, there must we hasten, because honor is there! If what
the pasquinades say is compatible with our dignity and our feelings, be
he who he may that wrote them, he has done well, and we ought to be
grateful to him and hasten to add our signatures to his! If they are
unworthy of us, our conduct and our consciences will in themselves
protest and defend us from every accusation!”

Upon hearing such talk, Basilio, although he liked Isagani very much,
turned and left. He had to go to Makaraig’s house to see about the
loan.

Near the house of the wealthy student he observed whisperings and
mysterious signals among the neighbors, but not comprehending what they
meant, continued serenely on his way and entered the doorway. Two
guards advanced and asked him what he wanted. Basilio realized that he
had made a bad move, but he could not now retreat.

“I’ve come to see my friend Makaraig,” he replied calmly.

The guards looked at each other. “Wait here,” one of them said to him.
“Wait till the corporal comes down.”

Basilio bit his lips and Simoun’s words again recurred to him. Had they
come to arrest Makaraig?—was his thought, but he dared not give it
utterance. He did not have to wait long, for in a few moments Makaraig
came down, talking pleasantly with the corporal. The two were preceded
by a warrant officer.

“What, you too, Basilio?” he asked.

“I came to see you—”

“Noble conduct!” exclaimed Makaraig laughing. “In time of calm, you
avoid us.”

The corporal asked Basilio his name, then scanned a list. “Medical
student, Calle Anloague?” he asked.

Basilio bit his lip.

“You’ve saved us a trip,” added the corporal, placing his hand on the
youth’s shoulder. “You’re under arrest!”

“What, I also?”

Makaraig burst out into laughter.

“Don’t worry, friend. Let’s get into the carriage, while I tell you
about the supper last night.”

With a graceful gesture, as though he were in his own house, he invited
the warrant officer and the corporal to enter the carriage that waited
at the door.

“To the Civil Government!” he ordered the cochero.

Now that Basilio had again regained his composure, he told Makaraig the
object of his visit. The rich student did not wait for him to finish,
but seized his hand. “Count on me, count on me, and to the festivities
celebrating our graduation we’ll invite these gentlemen,” he said,
indicating the corporal and the warrant officer.



CHAPTER XXVII

THE FRIAR AND THE FILIPINO

                                                    Vox populi, vox Dei


We left Isagani haranguing his friends. In the midst of his enthusiasm
an usher approached him to say that Padre Fernandez, one of the higher
professors, wished to talk with him.

Isagani’s face fell. Padre Fernandez was a person greatly respected by
him, being the one always excepted by him whenever the friars were
attacked.

“What does Padre Fernandez want?” he inquired.

The usher shrugged his shoulders and Isagani reluctantly followed him.

Padre Fernandez, the friar whom we met in Los Baños, was waiting in his
cell, grave and sad, with his brows knitted as if he were in deep
thought. He arose as Isagani entered, shook hands with him, and closed
the door. Then he began to pace from one end of the room to the other.
Isagani stood waiting for him to speak.

“Señor Isagani,” he began at length with some emotion, “from the window
I’ve heard you speaking, for though I am a consumptive I have good
ears, and I want to talk with you. I have always liked the young men
who express themselves clearly and have their own way of thinking and
acting, no matter that their ideas may differ from mine. You young men,
from what I have heard, had a supper last night. Don’t excuse
yourself—”

“I don’t intend to excuse myself!” interrupted Isagani.

“So much the better—it shows that you accept the consequences of your
actions. Besides, you would do ill in retracting, and I don’t blame
you, I take no notice of what may have been said there last night, I
don’t accuse you, because after all you’re free to say of the
Dominicans what seems best to you, you are not a pupil of ours—only
this year have we had the pleasure of having you, and we shall probably
not have you longer. Don’t think that I’m going to invoke
considerations of gratitude; no, I’m not going to waste my time in
stupid vulgarisms. I’ve had you summoned here because I believe that
you are one of the few students who act from conviction, and, as I like
men of conviction, I’m going to explain myself to Señor Isagani.”

Padre Fernandez paused, then continued his walk with bowed head, his
gaze riveted on the floor.

“You may sit down, if you wish,” he remarked. “It’s a habit of mine to
walk about while talking, because my ideas come better then.”

Isagani remained standing, with his head erect, waiting for the
professor to get to the point of the matter.

“For more than eight years I have been a professor here,” resumed Padre
Fernandez, still continuing to pace back and forth, “and in that time
I’ve known and dealt with more than twenty-five hundred students. I’ve
taught them, I’ve tried to educate them, I’ve tried to inculcate in
them principles of justice and of dignity, and yet in these days when
there is so much murmuring against us I’ve not seen one who has the
temerity to maintain his accusations when he finds himself in the
presence of a friar, not even aloud in the presence of any numbers.
Young men there are who behind our backs calumniate us and before us
kiss our hands, with a base smile begging kind looks from us! Bah! What
do you wish that we should do with such creatures?”

“The fault is not all theirs, Padre,” replied Isagani. “The fault lies
partly with those who have taught them to be hypocrites, with those who
have tyrannized over freedom of thought and freedom of speech. Here
every independent thought, every word that is not an echo of the will
of those in power, is characterized as filibusterism, and you know well
enough what that means. A fool would he be who to please himself would
say aloud what he thinks, who would lay himself liable to suffer
persecution!”

“What persecution have you had to suffer?” asked Padre Fernandez,
raising his head. “Haven’t I let you express yourself freely in my
class? Nevertheless, you are an exception that, if what you say is
true, I must correct, so as to make the rule as general as possible and
thus avoid setting a bad example.”

Isagani smiled. “I thank you, but I will not discuss with you whether I
am an exception. I will accept your qualification so that you may
accept mine: you also are an exception, and as here we are not going to
talk about exceptions, nor plead for ourselves, at least, I mean, I’m
not, I beg of my professor to change the course of the conversation.”

In spite of his liberal principles, Padre Fernandez raised his head and
stared in surprise at Isagani. That young man was more independent than
he had thought—although he called him professor, in reality he was
dealing with him as an equal, since he allowed himself to offer
suggestions. Like a wise diplomat, Padre Fernandez not only recognized
the fact but even took his stand upon it.

“Good enough!” he said. “But don’t look upon me as your professor. I’m
a friar and you are a Filipino student, nothing more nor less! Now I
ask you—what do the Filipino students want of us?”

The question came as a surprise; Isagani was not prepared for it. It
was a thrust made suddenly while they were preparing their defense, as
they say in fencing. Thus startled, Isagani responded with a violent
stand, like a beginner defending himself.

“That you do your duty!” he exclaimed.

Fray Fernandez straightened up—that reply sounded to him like a
cannon-shot. “That we do our duty!” he repeated, holding himself erect.
“Don’t we, then, do our duty? What duties do you ascribe to us?”

“Those which you voluntarily placed upon yourselves on joining the
order, and those which afterwards, once in it, you have been willing to
assume. But, as a Filipino student, I don’t think myself called upon to
examine your conduct with reference to your statutes, to Catholicism,
to the government, to the Filipino people, and to humanity in
general—those are questions that you have to settle with your founders,
with the Pope, with the government, with the whole people, and with
God. As a Filipino student, I will confine myself to your duties toward
us. The friars in general, being the local supervisors of education in
the provinces, and the Dominicans in particular, by monopolizing in
their hands all the studies of the Filipino youth, have assumed the
obligation to its eight millions of inhabitants, to Spain, and to
humanity, of which we form a part, of steadily bettering the young
plant, morally and physically, of training it toward its happiness, of
creating a people honest, prosperous, intelligent, virtuous, noble, and
loyal. Now I ask you in my turn—have the friars fulfilled that
obligation of theirs?”

“We’re fulfilling—”

“Ah, Padre Fernandez,” interrupted Isagani, “you with your hand on your
heart can say that you are fulfilling it, but with your hand on the
heart of your order, on the heart of all the orders, you cannot say
that without deceiving yourself. Ah, Padre Fernandez, when I find
myself in the presence of a person whom I esteem and respect, I prefer
to be the accused rather than the accuser, I prefer to defend myself
rather than take the offensive. But now that we have entered upon the
discussion, let us carry it to the end! How do they fulfill their
obligation, those who look after education in the towns? By hindering
it! And those who here monopolize education, those who try to mold the
mind of youth, to the exclusion of all others whomsoever, how do they
carry out their mission? By curtailing knowledge as much as possible,
by extinguishing all ardor and enthusiasm, by trampling on all dignity,
the soul’s only refuge, by inculcating in us worn-out ideas, rancid
beliefs, false principles incompatible with a life of progress! Ah,
yes, when it is a question of feeding convicts, of providing for the
maintenance of criminals, the government calls for bids in order to
find the purveyor who offers the best means of subsistence, he who at
least will not let them perish from hunger, but when it is a question
of morally feeding a whole people, of nourishing the intellect of
youth, the healthiest part, that which is later to be the country and
the all, the government not only does not ask for any bid, but
restricts the power to that very body which makes a boast of not
desiring education, of wishing no advancement. What should we say if
the purveyor for the prisons, after securing the contract by intrigue,
should then leave the prisoners to languish in want, giving them only
what is stale and rancid, excusing himself afterwards by saying that it
is not convenient for the prisoners to enjoy good health, because good
health brings merry thoughts, because merriment improves the man, and
the man ought not to be improved, because it is to the purveyor’s
interest that there be many criminals? What should we say if afterwards
the government and the purveyor should agree between themselves that of
the ten or twelve cuartos which one received for each criminal, the
other should receive five?”

Padre Fernandek bit his lip. “Those are grave charges,” he said, “and
you are overstepping the limits of our agreement.”

“No, Padre, not if I continue to deal with the student question. The
friars—and I do not say, you friars, since I do not confuse you with
the common herd—the friars of all the orders have constituted
themselves our mental purveyors, yet they say and shamelessly proclaim
that it is not expedient for us to become enlightened, because some day
we shall declare ourselves free! That is just the same as not wishing
the prisoner to be well-fed so that he may improve and get out of
prison. Liberty is to man what education is to the intelligence, and
the friars’ unwillingness that we have it is the origin of our
discontent.”

“Instruction is given only to those who deserve it,” rejoined Padre
Fernandez dryly. “To give it to men without character and without
morality is to prostitute it.”

“Why are there men without character and without morality?”

The Dominican shrugged his shoulders. “Defects that they imbibe with
their mothers’ milk, that they breathe in the bosom of the family—how
do I know?”

“Ah, no, Padre Fernandez!” exclaimed the young man impetuously. “You
have not dared to go into the subject deeply, you have not wished to
gaze into the depths from fear of finding yourself there in the
darkness of your brethren. What we are, you have made us. A people
tyrannized over is forced to be hypocritical; a people denied the truth
must resort to lies; and he who makes himself a tyrant breeds slaves.
There is no morality, you say, so let it be—even though statistics can
refute you in that here are not committed crimes like those among other
peoples, blinded by the fumes of their moralizers. But, without
attempting now to analyze what it is that forms the character and how
far the education received determines morality, I will agree with you
that we are defective. Who is to blame for that? You who for three
centuries and a half have had in your hands our education, or we who
submit to everything? If after three centuries and a half the artist
has been able to produce only a caricature, stupid indeed he must be!”

“Or bad enough the material he works upon.”

“Stupider still then, when, knowing it to be bad, he does not give it
up, but goes on wasting time. Not only is he stupid, but he is a cheat
and a robber, because he knows that his work is useless, yet continues
to draw his salary. Not only is he stupid and a thief, he is a villain
in that he prevents any other workman from trying his skill to see if
he might not produce something worth while! The deadly jealousy of the
incompetent!”

The reply was sharp and Padre Fernandez felt himself caught. To his
gaze Isagani appeared gigantic, invincible, convincing, and for the
first time in his life he felt beaten by a Filipino student. He
repented of having provoked the argument, but it was too late to turn
back. In this quandary, finding himself confronted with such a
formidable adversary, he sought a strong shield and laid hold of the
government.

“You impute all the faults to us, because you see only us, who are
near,” he said in a less haughty tone. “It’s natural and doesn’t
surprise me. A person hates the soldier or policeman who arrests him
and not the judge who sends him to prison. You and we are both dancing
to the same measure of music—if at the same note you lift your foot in
unison with us, don’t blame us for it, it’s the music that is directing
our movements. Do you think that we friars have no consciences and that
we do not desire what is right? Do you believe that we do not think
about you, that we do not heed our duty, that we only eat to live, and
live to rule? Would that it were so! But we, like you, follow the
cadence, finding ourselves between Scylla and Charybdis: either you
reject us or the government rejects us. The government commands, and he
who commands, commands,—and must be obeyed!”

“From which it may be inferred,” remarked Isagani with a bitter smile,
“that the government wishes our demoralization.”

“Oh, no, I didn’t mean that! What I meant to say is that there are
beliefs, there are theories, there are laws, which, dictated with the
best intention, produce the most deplorable consequences. I’ll explain
myself better by citing an example. To stamp out a small evil, there
are dictated many laws that cause greater evils still: ‘corruptissima
in republica plurimae leges,’ said Tacitus. To prevent one case of
fraud, there are provided a million and a half preventive or
humiliating regulations, which produce the immediate effect of
awakening in the public the desire to elude and mock such regulations.
To make a people criminal, there’s nothing more needed than to doubt
its virtue. Enact a law, not only here, but even in Spain, and you will
see how the means of evading it will be sought, and this is for the
very reason that the legislators have overlooked the fact that the more
an object is hidden, the more a sight of it is desired. Why are
rascality and astuteness regarded as great qualities in the Spanish
people, when there is no other so noble, so proud, so chivalrous as it?
Because our legislators, with the best intentions, have doubted its
nobility, wounded its pride, challenged its chivalry! Do you wish to
open in Spain a road among the rocks? Then place there an imperative
notice forbidding the passage, and the people, in order to protest
against the order, will leave the highway to clamber over the rocks.
The day on which some legislator in Spain forbids virtue and commands
vice, then all will become virtuous!”

The Dominican paused for a brief space, then resumed: “But you may say
that we are getting away from the subject, so I’ll return to it. What I
can say to you, to convince you, is that the vices from which you
suffer ought to be ascribed by you neither to us nor to the government.
They are due to the imperfect organization of our social system: qui
multum probat, nihil probat, one loses himself through excessive
caution, lacking what is necessary and having too much of what is
superfluous.”

“If you admit those defects in your social system,” replied Isagani,
“why then do you undertake to regulate alien societies, instead of
first devoting your attention to yourselves?”

“We’re getting away from the subject, young man. The theory in
accomplished facts must be accepted.”

“So let it be! I accept it because it is an accomplished fact, but I
will further ask: why, if your social organization is defective, do you
not change it or at least give heed to the cry of those who are injured
by it?”

“We’re still far away. Let’s talk about what the students want from the
friars.”

“From the moment when the friars hide themselves behind the government,
the students have to turn to it.”

This statement was true and there appeared no means of ignoring it.

“I’m not the government and I can’t answer for its acts. What do the
students wish us to do for them within the limits by which we are
confined?”

“Not to oppose the emancipation of education but to favor it.”

The Dominican shook his head. “Without stating my own opinion, that is
asking us to commit suicide,” he said.

“On the contrary, it is asking you for room to pass in order not to
trample upon and crush you.”

“Ahem!” coughed Padre Fernandez, stopping and remaining thoughtful.
“Begin by asking something that does not cost so much, something that
any one of us can grant without abatement of dignity or privilege, for
if we can reach an understanding and dwell in peace, why this hatred,
why this distrust?”

“Then let’s get down to details.”

“Yes, because if we disturb the foundation, we’ll bring down the whole
edifice.”

“Then let’s get down to details, let’s leave the region of abstract
principles,” rejoined Isagani with a smile, “and also without stating
my own opinion,”—the youth accented these words—“the students would
desist from their attitude and soften certain asperities if the
professors would try to treat them better than they have up to the
present. That is in their hands.”

“What?” demanded the Dominican. “Have the students any complaint to
make about my conduct?”

“Padre, we agreed from the start not to talk of yourself or of myself,
we’re speaking generally. The students, besides getting no great
benefit out of the years spent in the classes, often leave there
remnants of their dignity, if not the whole of it.”

Padre Fernandez again bit his lip. “No one forces them to study—the
fields are uncultivated,” he observed dryly.

“Yes, there is something that impels them to study,” replied Isagani in
the same tone, looking the Dominican full in the face. “Besides the
duty of every one to seek his own perfection, there is the desire
innate in man to cultivate his intellect, a desire the more powerful
here in that it is repressed. He who gives his gold and his life to the
State has the right to require of it opporttmity better to get that
gold and better to care for his life. Yes, Padre, there is something
that impels them, and that something is the government itself. It is
you yourselves who pitilessly ridicule the uncultured Indian and deny
him his rights, on the ground that he is ignorant. You strip him and
then scoff at his nakedness.”

Padre Fernandez did not reply, but continued to pace about feverishly,
as though very much agitated.

“You say that the fields are not cultivated,” resumed Isagani in a
changed tone, after a brief pause. “Let’s not enter upon an analysis of
the reason for this, because we should get far away. But you, Padre
Fernandez, you, a teacher, you, a learned man, do you wish a people of
peons and laborers? In your opinion, is the laborer the perfect state
at which man may arrive in his development? Or is it that you wish
knowledge for yourself and labor for the rest?”

“No, I want knowledge for him who deserves it, for him who knows how to
use it,” was the reply. “When the students demonstrate that they love
it, when young men of conviction appear, young men who know how to
maintain their dignity and make it respected, then there will be
knowledge, then there will be considerate professors! If there are now
professors who resort to abuse, it is because there are pupils who
submit to it.”

“When there are professors, there will be students!”

“Begin by reforming yourselves, you who have need of change, and we
will follow.”

“Yes,” said Isagani with a bitter laugh, “let us begin it, because the
difficulty is on our side. Well you know what is expected of a pupil
who stands before a professor—you yourself, with all your love of
justice, with all your kind sentiments, have been restraining yourself
by a great effort while I have been telling you bitter truths, you
yourself, Padre Fernandez! What good has been secured by him among us
who has tried to inculcate other ideas? What evils have not fallen upon
you because you have tried to be just and perform your duty?”

“Señor Isagani,” said the Dominican, extending his hand, “although it
may seem that nothing practical has resulted from this conversation,
yet something has been gained. I’ll talk to my brethren about what you
have told me and I hope that something can be done. Only I fear that
they won’t believe in your existence.”

“I fear the same,” returned Isagani, shaking the Dominican’s hand. “I
fear that my friends will not believe in your existence, as you have
revealed yourself to me today.” [57]

Considering the interview at an end, the young man took his leave.

Padre Fernandez opened the door and followed him with his gaze until he
disappeared around a corner in the corridor. For some time he listened
to the retreating footsteps, then went back into his cell and waited
for the youth to appear in the street.

He saw him and actually heard him say to a friend who asked where he
was going: “To the Civil Government! I’m going to see the pasquinades
and join the others!”

His startled friend stared at him as one would look at a person who is
about to commit suicide, then moved away from him hurriedly.

“Poor boy!” murmured Padre Fernandez, feeling his eyes moisten. “I
grudge you to the Jesuits who educated you.”

But Padre Fernandez was completely mistaken; the Jesuits repudiated
Isagani [58] when that afternoon they learned that he had been
arrested, saying that he would compromise them. “That young man has
thrown himself away, he’s going to do us harm! Let it be understood
that he didn’t get those ideas here.”

Nor were the Jesuits wrong. No! Those ideas come only from God through
the medium of Nature.



CHAPTER XXVIII

TATAKUT


With prophetic inspiration Ben-Zayb had been for some days past
maintaining in his newspaper that education was disastrous, very
disastrous for the Philippine Islands, and now in view of the events of
that Friday of pasquinades, the writer crowed and chanted his triumph,
leaving belittled and overwhelmed his adversary Horatius, who in the
Pirotecnia had dared to ridicule him in the following manner:


    From our contemporary, El Grito:

    “Education is disastrous, very disastrous, for the Philippine
    Islands.”

    Admitted.

    For some time El Grito has pretended to represent the Filipino
    people—ergo, as Fray Ibañez would say, if he knew Latin.

    But Fray Ibañez turns Mussulman when he writes, and we know how the
    Mussulmans dealt with education. In witness whereof, as a royal
    preacher said, the Alexandrian library!


Now he was right, he, Ben-Zayb! He was the only one in the islands who
thought, the only one who foresaw events!

Truly, the news that seditious pasquinades had been found on the doors
of the University not only took away the appetite from many and
disturbed the digestion of others, but it even rendered the phlegmatic
Chinese uneasy, so that they no longer dared to sit in their shops with
one leg drawn up as usual, from fear of losing time in extending it in
order to put themselves into flight. At eight o’clock in the morning,
although the sun continued on its course and his Excellency, the
Captain-General, did not appear at the head of his victorious cohorts,
still the excitement had increased. The friars who were accustomed to
frequent Quiroga’s bazaar did not put in their appearance, and this
symptom presaged terrific cataclysms. If the sun had risen a square and
the saints appeared only in pantaloons, Quiroga would not have been so
greatly alarmed, for he would have taken the sun for a gaming-table and
the sacred images for gamblers who had lost their camisas, but for the
friars not to come, precisely when some novelties had just arrived for
them!

By means of a provincial friend of his, Quiroga forbade entrance into
his gaming-houses to every Indian who was not an old acquaintance, as
the future Chinese consul feared that they might get possession of the
sums that the wretches lost there. After arranging his bazaar in such a
way that he could close it quickly in case of need, he had a policeman
accompany him for the short distance that separated his house from
Simoun’s. Quiroga thought this occasion the most propitious for making
use of the rifles and cartridges that he had in his warehouse, in the
way the jeweler had pointed out; so that on the following days there
would be searches made, and then—how many prisoners, how many terrified
people would give up their savings! It was the game of the old
carbineers, in slipping contraband cigars and tobacco-leaves under a
house, in order to pretend a search and force the unfortunate owner to
bribery or fines, only now the art had been perfected and, the tobacco
monopoly abolished, resort was had to the prohibited arms.

But Simoun refused to see any one and sent word to the Chinese that he
should leave things as they were, whereupon he went to see Don Custodio
to inquire whether he should fortify his bazaar, but neither would Don
Custodio receive him, being at the time engaged in the study of a
project for defense in case of a siege. He thought of Ben-Zayb as a
source of information, but finding the writer armed to the teeth and
using two loaded revolvers for paper-weights, took his leave in the
shortest possible time, to shut himself up in his house and take to his
bed under pretense of illness.

At four in the afternoon the talk was no longer of simple pasquinades.
There were whispered rumors of an understanding between the students
and the outlaws of San Mateo, it was certain that in the pansitería
they had conspired to surprise the city, there was talk of German ships
outside the bay to support the movement, of a band of young men who
under the pretext of protesting and demonstrating their Hispanism had
gone to the Palace to place themselves at the General’s orders but had
been arrested because it was discovered that they were armed.
Providence had saved his Excellency, preventing him from receiving
those precocious criminals, as he was at the time in conference with
the Provincials, the Vice-Rector, and with Padre Irene, Padre Salvi’s
representative. There was considerable truth in these rumors, if we
have to believe Padre Irene, who in the afternoon went to visit Capitan
Tiago. According to him, certain persons had advised his Excellency to
improve the opportunity in order to inspire terror and administer a
lasting lesson to the filibusters.

“A number shot,” one had advised, “some two dozen reformers deported at
once, in the silence of the night, would extinguish forever the flames
of discontent.”

“No,” rejoined another, who had a kind heart, “sufficient that the
soldiers parade through the streets, a troop of cavalry, for example,
with drawn sabers—sufficient to drag along some cannon, that’s enough!
The people are timid and will all retire into their houses.”

“No, no,” insinuated another. “This is the opportunity to get rid of
the enemy. It’s not sufficient that they retire into their houses, they
should be made to come out, like evil humors by means of plasters. If
they are inclined to start riots, they should be stirred up by secret
agitators. I am of the opinion that the troops should be resting on
their arms and appearing careless and indifferent, so the people may be
emboldened, and then in case of any disturbance—out on them, action!”

“The end justifies the means,” remarked another. “Our end is our holy
religion and the integrity of the fatherland. Proclaim a state of
siege, and in case of the least disturbance, arrest all the rich and
educated, and—clean up the country!”

“If I hadn’t got there in time to counsel moderation,” added Padre
Irene, speaking to Capitan Tiago, “it’s certain that blood would now be
flowing through the streets. I thought of you, Capitan—The partizans of
force couldn’t do much with the General, and they missed Simoun. Ah, if
Simoun had not been taken ill—”

With the arrest of Basilio and the search made later among his books
and papers, Capitan Tiago had become much worse. Now Padre Irene had
come to augment his terror with hair-raising tales. Ineffable fear
seized upon the wretch, manifesting itself first by a light shiver,
which was rapidly accentuated, until he was unable to speak. With his
eyes bulging and his brow covered with sweat, he caught Padre Irene’s
arm and tried to rise, but could not, and then, uttering two groans,
fell heavily back upon the pillow. His eyes were wide open and he was
slavering—but he was dead. The terrified Padre Irene fled, and, as the
dying man had caught hold of him, in his flight he dragged the corpse
from the bed, leaving it sprawling in the middle of the room.

By night the terror had reached a climax. Several incidents had
occurred to make the timorous believe in the presence of secret
agitators.

During a baptism some cuartos were thrown to the boys and naturally
there was a scramble at the door of the church. It happened that at the
time there was passing a bold soldier, who, somewhat preoccupied,
mistook the uproar for a gathering of filibusters and hurled himself,
sword in hand, upon the boys. He went into the church, and had he not
become entangled in the curtains suspended from the choir he would not
have left a single head on shoulders. It was but the matter of a moment
for the timorous to witness this and take to flight, spreading the news
that the revolution had begun. The few shops that had been kept open
were now hastily closed, there being Chinese who even left bolts of
cloth outside, and not a few women lost their slippers in their flight
through the streets. Fortunately, there was only one person wounded and
a few bruised, among them the soldier himself, who suffered a fall
fighting with the curtain, which smelt to him of filibusterism. Such
prowess gained him great renown, and a renown so pure that it is to be
wished all fame could be acquired in like manner—mothers would then
weep less and earth would be more populous!

In a suburb the inhabitants caught two unknown individuals burying arms
under a house, whereupon a tumult arose and the people pursued the
strangers in order to kill them and turn their bodies over to the
authorities, but some one pacified the excited crowd by telling them
that it would be sufficient to hand over the corpora delictorum, which
proved to be some old shotguns that would surely have killed the first
person who tried to fire them.

“All right,” exclaimed one braggart, “if they want us to rebel, let’s
go ahead!” But he was cuffed and kicked into silence, the women
pinching him as though he had been the owner of the shotguns.

In Ermita the affair was more serious, even though there was less
excitement, and that when there were shots fired. A certain cautious
government employee, armed to the teeth, saw at nightfall an object
near his house, and taking it for nothing less than a student, fired at
it twice with a revolver. The object proved to be a policeman, and they
buried him—pax Christi! Mutis!

In Dulumbayan various shots also resounded, from which there resulted
the death of a poor old deaf man, who had not heard the sentinel’s
quién vive, and of a hog that had heard it and had not answered España!
The old man was buried with difficulty, since there was no money to pay
for the obsequies, but the hog was eaten.

In Manila, [59] in a confectionery near the University much frequented
by the students, the arrests were thus commented upon.

“And have they arrested Tadeo?” [60] asked the proprietess.

“Abá!” answered a student who lived in Parian, “he’s already shot!”

“Shot! Nakú! He hasn’t paid what he owes me.”

“Ay, don’t mention that or you’ll be taken for an accomplice. I’ve
already burnt the book [61] you lent me. There might be a search and it
would be found. Be careful!”

“Did you say that Isagani is a prisoner?”

“Crazy fool, too, that Isagani,” replied the indignant student. “They
didn’t try to catch him, but he went and surrendered. Let him bust
himself—he’ll surely be shot.”

The señora shrugged her shoulders. “He doesn’t owe me anything. And
what about Paulita?”

“She won’t lack a husband. Sure, she’ll cry a little, and then marry a
Spaniard.”

The night was one of the gloomiest. In the houses the rosary was
recited and pious women dedicated paternosters and requiems to each of
the souls of their relatives and friends. By eight o’clock hardly a
pedestrian could be seen—only from time to time was heard the galloping
of a horse against whose sides a saber clanked noisily, then the
whistles of the watchmen, and carriages that whirled along at full
speed, as though pursued by mobs of filibusters.

Yet terror did not reign everywhere. In the house of the silversmith,
where Placido Penitente boarded, the events were commented upon and
discussed with some freedom.

“I don’t believe in the pasquinades,” declared a workman, lank and
withered from operating the blowpipe. “To me it looks like Padre
Salvi’s doings.”

“Ahem, ahem!” coughed the silversmith, a very prudent man, who did not
dare to stop the conversation from fear that he would be considered a
coward. The good man had to content himself with coughing, winking to
his helper, and gazing toward the street, as if to say, “They may be
watching us!”

“On account of the operetta,” added another workman.

“Aha!” exclaimed one who had a foolish face, “I told you so!”

“Ahem!” rejoined a clerk, in a tone of compassion, “the affair of the
pasquinades is true, Chichoy, and I can give you the explanation.”

Then he added mysteriously, “It’s a trick of the Chinaman Quiroga’s!”

“Ahem, ahem!” again coughed the silversmith, shifting his quid of buyo
from one cheek to the other.

“Believe me, Chichoy, of Quiroga the Chinaman! I heard it in the
office.”

“Nakú, it’s certain then,” exclaimed the simpleton, believing it at
once.

“Quiroga,” explained the clerk, “has a hundred thousand pesos in
Mexican silver out in the bay. How is he to get it in? Very easily. Fix
up the pasquinades, availing himself of the question of the students,
and, while every-body is excited, grease the officials’ palms, and in
the cases come!”

“Just it! Just it!” cried the credulous fool, striking the table with
his fist. “Just it! That’s why Quiroga did it! That’s why—” But he had
to relapse into silence as he really did not know what to say about
Quiroga.

“And we must pay the damages?” asked the indignant Chichoy.

“Ahem, ahem, a-h-hem!” coughed the silversmith, hearing steps in the
street.

The footsteps approached and all in the shop fell silent.

“St. Pascual Bailon is a great saint,” declared the silversmith
hypocritically, in a loud voice, at the same time winking to the
others. “St. Pascual Bailon—”

At that moment there appeared the face of Placido Penitente, who was
accompanied by the pyrotechnician that we saw receiving orders from
Simoun. The newcomers were surrounded and importuned for news.

“I haven’t been able to talk with the prisoners,” explained Placido.
“There are some thirty of them.”

“Be on your guard,” cautioned the pyrotechnician, exchanging a knowing
look with Placido. “They say that to-night there’s going to be a
massacre.”

“Aha! Thunder!” exclaimed Chichoy, looking about for a weapon. Seeing
none, he caught up his blowpipe.

The silversmith sat down, trembling in every limb. The credulous
simpleton already saw himself beheaded and wept in anticipation over
the fate of his family.

“No,” contradicted the clerk, “there’s not going to be any massacre.
The adviser of”—he made a mysterious gesture—“is fortunately sick.”

“Simoun!”

“Ahem, ahem, a-h-hem!”

Placido and the pyrotechnician exchanged another look.

“If he hadn’t got sick—”

“It would look like a revolution,” added the pyrotechnician
negligently, as he lighted a cigarette in the lamp chimney. “And what
should we do then?”

“Then we’d start a real one, now that they’re going to massacre us
anyhow—”

The violent fit of coughing that seized the silversmith prevented the
rest of this speech from being heard, but Chichoy must have been saying
terrible things, to judge from his murderous gestures with the blowpipe
and the face of a Japanese tragedian that he put on.

“Rather say that he’s playing off sick because he’s afraid to go out.
As may be seen—”

The silversmith was attacked by another fit of coughing so severe that
he finally asked all to retire.

“Nevertheless, get ready,” warned the pyrotechnician. “If they want to
force us to kill or be killed—”

Another fit of coughing on the part of the poor silversmith prevented
further conversation, so the workmen and apprentices retired to their
homes, carrying with them hammers and saws, and other implements, more
or less cutting, more or less bruising, disposed to sell their lives
dearly. Placido and the pyrotechnician went out again.

“Prudence, prudence!” cautioned the silversmith in a tearful voice.

“You’ll take care of my widow and orphans!” begged the credulous
simpleton in a still more tearful voice, for he already saw himself
riddled with bullets and buried.

That night the guards at the city gates were replaced with Peninsular
artillerymen, and on the following morning as the sun rose, Ben-Zayb,
who had ventured to take a morning stroll to examine the condition of
the fortifications, found on the glacis near the Luneta the corpse of a
native girl, half-naked and abandoned. Ben-Zayb was horrified, but
after touching it with his cane and gazing toward the gates proceeded
on his way, musing over a sentimental tale he might base upon the
incident.

However, no allusion to it appeared in the newspapers on the following
days, engrossed as they were with the falls and slippings caused by
banana-peels. In the dearth of news Ben-Zayb had to comment at length
on a cyclone that had destroyed in America whole towns, causing the
death of more than two thousand persons. Among other beautiful things
he said:


   “The sentiment of charity, MORE PREVALENT IN CATHOLIC COUNTRIES
    THAN IN OTHERS, and the thought of Him who, influenced by that same
    feeling, sacrificed himself for humanity, moves (sic) us to
    compassion over the misfortunes of our kind and to render thanks
    that in this country, so scourged by cyclones, there are not
    enacted scenes so desolating as that which the inhabitants of the
    United States mus have witnessed!”


Horatius did not miss the opportunity, and, also without mentioning the
dead, or the murdered native girl, or the assaults, answered him in his
Pirotecnia:


   “After such great charity and such great humanity, Fray Ibañez—I
    mean, Ben-Zayb—brings himself to pray for the Philippines.

    But he is understood.

    Because he is not Catholic, and the sentiment of charity is most
    prevalent,” etc. [62]



CHAPTER XXIX

EXIT CAPITAN TIAGO

                                                  Talis vita, finis ita


Capitan Tiago had a good end—that is, a quite exceptional funeral. True
it is that the curate of the parish had ventured the observation to
Padre Irene that Capitan Tiago had died without confession, but the
good priest, smiling sardonically, had rubbed the tip of his nose and
answered:

“Why say that to me? If we had to deny the obsequies to all who die
without confession, we should forget the De profundis! These
restrictions, as you well know, are enforced when the impenitent is
also insolvent. But Capitan Tiago—out on you! You’ve buried infidel
Chinamen, and with a requiem mass!”

Capitan Tiago had named Padre Irene as his executor and willed his
property in part to St. Clara, part to the Pope, to the Archbishop, the
religious corporations, leaving twenty pesos for the matriculation of
poor students. This last clause had been dictated at the suggestion of
Padre Irene, in his capacity as protector of studious youths. Capitan
Tiago had annulled a legacy of twenty-five pesos that he had left to
Basilio, in view of the ungrateful conduct of the boy during the last
few days, but Padre Irene had restored it and announced that he would
take it upon his own purse and conscience.

In the dead man’s house, where were assembled on the following day many
old friends and acquaintances, considerable comment was indulged in
over a miracle. It was reported that, at the very moment when he was
dying, the soul of Capitan Tiago had appeared to the nuns surrounded by
a brilliant light. God had saved him, thanks to the pious legacies, and
to the numerous masses he had paid for. The story was commented upon,
it was recounted vividly, it took on particulars, and was doubted by no
one. The appearance of Capitan Tiago was minutely described—of course
the frock coat, the cheek bulged out by the quid of buyo, without
omitting the game-cock and the opium-pipe. The senior sacristan, who
was present, gravely affirmed these facts with his head and reflected
that, after death, he would appear with his cup of white tajú, for
without that refreshing breakfast he could not comprehend happiness
either on earth or in heaven.

On this subject, because of their inability to discuss the events of
the preceding day and because there were gamblers present, many strange
speculations were developed. They made conjectures as to whether
Capitan Tiago would invite St. Peter to a soltada, whether they would
place bets, whether the game-cocks were immortal, whether invulnerable,
and in this case who would be the referee, who would win, and so on:
discussions quite to the taste of those who found sciences, theories,
and systems, based on a text which they esteem infallible, revealed or
dogmatic. Moreover, there were cited passages from novenas, books of
miracles, sayings of the curates, descriptions of heaven, and other
embroidery. Don Primitivo, the philosopher, was in his glory quoting
opinions of the theologians.

“Because no one can lose,” he stated with great authority. “To lose
would cause hard feelings and in heaven there can’t be any hard
feelings.”

“But some one has to win,” rejoined the gambler Aristorenas. “The fun
lies in winning!”

“Well, both win, that’s easy!”

This idea of both winning could not be admitted by Aristorenas, for he
had passed his life in the cockpit and had always seen one cock lose
and the other win—at best, there was a tie. Vainly Don Primitivo argued
in Latin. Aristorenas shook his head, and that too when Don Primitivo’s
Latin was easy to understand, for he talked of an gallus talisainus,
acuto tari armatus, an gallus beati Petri bulikus sasabung̃us sit, [63]
and so on, until at length he decided to resort to the argument which
many use to convince and silence their opponents.

“You’re going to be damned, friend Martin, you’re falling into heresy!
Cave ne cadas! I’m not going to play monte with you any more, and we’ll
not set up a bank together. You deny the omnipotence of God, peccatum
mortale! You deny the existence of the Holy Trinity— three are one and
one is three! Take care! You indirectly deny that two natures, two
understandings, and two wills can have only one memory! Be careful!
Quicumque non crederit anathema sit!”

Martin Aristorenas shrank away pale and trembling, while Quiroga, who
had listened with great attention to the argument, with marked
deference offered the philosopher a magnificent cigar, at the same time
asking in his caressing voice: “Surely, one can make a contract for a
cockpit with Kilisto, [64] ha? When I die, I’ll be the contractor, ha?”

Among the others, they talked more of the deceased; at least they
discussed what kind of clothing to put on him. Capitan Tinong proposed
a Franciscan habit—and fortunately, he had one, old, threadbare, and
patched, a precious object which, according to the friar who gave it to
him as alms in exchange for thirty-six pesos, would preserve the corpse
from the flames of hell and which reckoned in its support various pious
anecdotes taken from the books distributed by the curates. Although he
held this relic in great esteem, Capitan Tinong was disposed to part
with it for the sake of his intimate friend, whom he had not been able
to visit during his illness. But a tailor objected, with good reason,
that since the nuns had seen Capitan Tiago ascending to heaven in a
frock coat, in a frock coat he should be dressed here on earth, nor was
there any necessity for preservatives and fire-proof garments. The
deceased had attended balls and fiestas in a frock coat, and nothing
else would be expected of him in the skies—and, wonderful to relate,
the tailor accidentally happened to have one ready, which he would part
with for thirty-two pesos, four cheaper than the Franciscan habit,
because he didn’t want to make any profit on Capitan Tiago, who had
been his customer in life and would now be his patron in heaven. But
Padre Irene, trustee and executor, rejected both proposals and ordered
that the Capitan be dressed in one of his old suits of clothes,
remarking with holy unction that God paid no attention to clothing.

The obsequies were, therefore, of the very first class. There were
responsories in the house, and in the street three friars officiated,
as though one were not sufficient for such a great soul. All the rites
and ceremonies possible were performed, and it is reported that there
were even extras, as in the benefits for actors. It was indeed a
delight: loads of incense were burned, there were plenty of Latin
chants, large quantities of holy water were expended, and Padre Irene,
out of regard for his old friend, sang the Dies Irae in a falsetto
voice from the choir, while the neighbors suffered real headaches from
so much knell-ringing.

Doña Patrocinio, the ancient rival of Capitan Tiago in religiosity,
actually wanted to die on the next day, so that she might order even
more sumptuous obsequies. The pious old lady could not bear the thought
that he, whom she had long considered vanquished forever, should in
dying come forward again with so much pomp. Yes, she desired to die,
and it seemed that she could hear the exclamations of the people at the
funeral: “This indeed is what you call a funeral! This indeed is to
know how to die, Doña Patrocinio!”



CHAPTER XXX

JULI


The death of Capitan Tiago and Basilio’s imprisonment were soon
reported in the province, and to the honor of the simple inhabitants of
San Diego, let it be recorded that the latter was the incident more
regretted and almost the only one discussed. As was to be expected, the
report took on different forms, sad and startling details were given,
what could not be understood was explained, the gaps being filled by
conjectures, which soon passed for accomplished facts, and the phantoms
thus created terrified their own creators.

In the town of Tiani it was reported that at least, at the very least,
the young man was going to be deported and would very probably be
murdered on the journey. The timorous and pessimistic were not
satisfied with this but even talked about executions and
courts-martial—January was a fatal month; in January the Cavite affair
had occurred, and they [65] even though curates, had been garroted, so
a poor Basilio without protectors or friends—

“I told him so!” sighed the Justice of the Peace, as if he had at some
time given advice to Basilio. “I told him so.”

“It was to be expected,” commented Sister Penchang. “He would go into
the church and when he saw that the holy water was somewhat dirty he
wouldn’t cross himself with it. He talked about germs and disease, abá,
it’s the chastisement of God! He deserved it, and he got it! As though
the holy water could transmit diseases! Quite the contrary, abá!”

She then related how she had cured herself of indigestion by moistening
her stomach with holy water, at the same time reciting the Sanctus
Deus, and she recommended the remedy to those present when they should
suffer from dysentery, or an epidemic occurred, only that then they
must pray in Spanish:


        Santo Diós,
        Santo fuerte,
        Santo inmortal,
        ¡Libranos, Señor, de la peste
        Y de todo mal! [66]


“It’s an infallible remedy, but you must apply the holy water to the
part affected,” she concluded.

But there were many persons who did not believe in these things, nor
did they attribute Basilio’s imprisonment to the chastisement of God.
Nor did they take any stock in insurrections and pasquinades, knowing
the prudent and ultra-pacific character of the boy, but preferred to
ascribe it to revenge on the part of the friars, because of his having
rescued from servitude Juli, the daughter of a tulisan who was the
mortal enemy of a certain powerful corporation. As they had quite a
poor idea of the morality of that same corporation and could recall
cases of petty revenge, their conjecture was believed to have more
probability and justification.

“What a good thing I did when I drove her from my house!” said Sister
Penchang. “I don’t want to have any trouble with the friars, so I urged
her to find the money.”

The truth was, however, that she regretted Juli’s liberty, for Juli
prayed and fasted for her, and if she had stayed a longer time, would
also have done penance. Why, if the curates pray for us and Christ died
for our sins, couldn’t Juli do the same for Sister Penchang?

When the news reached the hut where the poor Juli and her grandfather
lived, the girl had to have it repeated to her. She stared at Sister
Bali, who was telling it, as though without comprehension, without
ability to collect her thoughts. Her ears buzzed, she felt a sinking at
the heart and had a vague presentiment that this event would have a
disastrous influence on her own future. Yet she tried to seize upon a
ray of hope, she smiled, thinking that Sister Bali was joking with her,
a rather strong joke, to be sure, but she forgave her beforehand if she
would acknowledge that it was such. But Sister Bali made a cross with
one of her thumbs and a forefinger, and kissed it, to prove that she
was telling the truth. Then the smile faded forever from the girl’s
lips, she turned pale, frightfully pale, she felt her strength leave
her and for the first time in her life she lost consciousness, falling
into a swoon.

When by dint of blows, pinches, dashes of water, crosses, and the
application of sacred palms, the girl recovered and remembered the
situation, silent tears sprang from her eyes, drop by drop, without
sobs, without laments, without complaints! She thought about Basilio,
who had had no other protector than Capitan Tiago, and who now, with
the Capitan dead, was left completely unprotected and in prison. In the
Philippines it is a well-known fact that patrons are needed for
everything, from the time one is christened until one dies, in order to
get justice, to secure a passport, or to develop an industry. As it was
said that his imprisonment was due to revenge on account of herself and
her father, the girl’s sorrow turned to desperation. Now it was her
duty to liberate him, as he had done in rescuing her from servitude,
and the inner voice which suggested the idea offered to her imagination
a horrible means.

“Padre Camorra, the curate,” whispered the voice. Juli gnawed at her
lips and became lost in gloomy meditation.

As a result of her father’s crime, her grandfather had been arrested in
the hope that by such means the son could be made to appear. The only
one who could get him his liberty was Padre Camorra, and Padre Camorra
had shown himself to be poorly satisfied with her words of gratitude,
having with his usual frankness asked for some sacrifices—since which
time Juli had tried to avoid meeting him. But the curate made her kiss
his hand, he twitched her nose and patted her cheeks, he joked with
her, winking and laughing, and laughing he pinched her. Juli was also
the cause of the beating the good curate had administered to some young
men who were going about the village serenading the girls. Malicious
ones, seeing her pass sad and dejected, would remark so that she might
hear: “If she only wished it, Cabesang Tales would be pardoned.”

Juli reached her home, gloomy and with wandering looks. She had changed
greatly, having lost her merriment, and no one ever saw her smile
again. She scarcely spoke and seemed to be afraid to look at her own
face. One day she was seen in the town with a big spot of soot on her
forehead, she who used to go so trim and neat. Once she asked Sister
Bali if the people who committed suicide went to hell.

“Surely!” replied that woman, and proceeded to describe the place as
though she had been there.

Upon Basilio’s imprisonment, the simple and grateful relatives had
planned to make all kinds of sacrifices to save the young man, but as
they could collect among themselves no more than thirty pesos, Sister
Bali, as usual, thought of a better plan.

“What we must do is to get some advice from the town clerk,” she said.
To these poor people, the town clerk was what the Delphic oracle was to
the ancient Greeks.

“By giving him a real and a cigar,” she continued, “he’ll tell you all
the laws so that your head bursts listening to him. If you have a peso,
he’ll save you, even though you may be at the foot of the scaffold.
When my friend Simon was put in jail and flogged for not being able to
give evidence about a robbery perpetrated near his house, abá, for two
reales and a half and a string of garlics, the town clerk got him out.
And I saw Simon myself when he could scarcely walk and he had to stay
in bed at least a month. Ay, his flesh rotted as a result and he died!”

Sister Bali’s advice was accepted and she herself volunteered to
interview the town clerk. Juli gave her four reales and added some
strips of jerked venison her grand-father had got, for Tandang Selo had
again devoted himself to hunting.

But the town clerk could do nothing—the prisoner was in Manila, and his
power did not extend that far. “If at least he were at the capital,
then—” he ventured, to make a show of his authority, which he knew very
well did not extend beyond the boundaries of Tiani, but he had to
maintain his prestige and keep the jerked venison. “But I can give you
a good piece of advice, and it is that you go with Juli to see the
Justice of the Peace. But it’s very necessary that Juli go.”

The Justice of the Peace was a very rough fellow, but if he should see
Juli he might conduct himself less rudely—this is wherein lay the
wisdom of the advice.

With great gravity the honorable Justice listened to Sister Bali, who
did the talking, but not without staring from time to time at the girl,
who hung her head with shame. People would say that she was greatly
interested in Basilio, people who did not remember her debt of
gratitude, nor that his imprisonment, according to report, was on her
account.

After belching three or four times, for his Honor had that ugly habit,
he said that the only person who could save Basilio was Padre Camorra,
in case he should care to do so. Here he stared meaningly at the girl
and advised her to deal with the curate in person.

“You know what influence he has,—he got your grand-father out of jail.
A report from him is enough to deport a new-born babe or save from
death a man with the noose about his neck.”

Juli said nothing, but Sister Bali took this advice as though she had
read it in a novena, and was ready to accompany the girl to the
convento. It so happened that she was just going there to get as alms a
scapulary in exchange for four full reales.

But Juli shook her head and was unwilling to go to the convento. Sister
Bali thought she could guess the reason—Padre Camorra was reputed to be
very fond of the women and was very frolicsome—so she tried to reassure
her. “You’ve nothing to fear if I go with you. Haven’t you read in the
booklet Tandang Basio, given you by the curate, that the girls should
go to the convento, even without the knowledge of their elders, to
relate what is going on at home? Abá, that book is printed with the
permission of the Archbishop!”

Juli became impatient and wished to cut short such talk, so she begged
the pious woman to go if she wished, but his Honor observed with a
belch that the supplications of a youthful face were more moving than
those of an old one, the sky poured its dew over the fresh flowers in
greater abundance than over the withered ones. The metaphor was
fiendishly beautiful.

Juli did not reply and the two left the house. In the street the girl
firmly refused to go to the convento and they returned to their
village. Sister Bali, who felt offended at this lack of confidence in
herself, on the way home relieved her feelings by administering a long
preachment to the girl.

The truth was that the girl could not take that step without damning
herself in her own eyes, besides being cursed of men and cursed of God!
It had been intimated to her several times, whether with reason or not,
that if she would make that sacrifice her father would be pardoned, and
yet she had refused, in spite of the cries of her conscience reminding
her of her filial duty. Now must she make it for Basilio, her
sweetheart? That would be to fall to the sound of mockery and laughter
from all creation. Basilio himself would despise her! No, never! She
would first hang herself or leap from some precipice. At any rate, she
was already damned for being a wicked daughter.

The poor girl had besides to endure all the reproaches of her
relatives, who, knowing nothing of what had passed between her and
Padre Camovra, laughed at her fears. Would Padre Camorra fix his
attention upon a country girl when there were so many others in the
town? Hero the good women cited names of unmarried girls, rich and
beautiful, who had been more or less unfortunate. Meanwhile, if they
should shoot Basilio?

Juli covered her ears and stared wildly about, as if seeking a voice
that might plead for her, but she saw only her grandfather, who was
dumb and had his gaze fixed on his hunting-spear.

That night she scarcely slept at all. Dreams and nightmares, some
funereal, some bloody, danced before her sight and woke her often,
bathed in cold perspiration. She fancied that she heard shots, she
imagined that she saw her father, that father who had done so much for
her, fighting in the forests, hunted like a wild beast because she had
refused to save him. The figure of her father was transformed and she
recognized Basilio, dying, with looks of reproach at her. The wretched
girl arose, prayed, wept, called upon her mother, upon death, and there
was even a moment when, overcome with terror, if it had not been
night-time, she would have run straight to the convento, let happen
what would.

With the coming of day the sad presentiments and the terrors of
darkness were partly dissipated. The light inspired hopes in her. But
the news of the afternoon was terrible, for there was talk of persons
shot, so the next night was for the girl frightful. In her desperation
she decided to give herself up as soon as day dawned and then kill
herself afterwards—anything, rather than enditre such tortures! But the
dawn brought new hope and she would not go to church or even leave the
house. She was afraid she would yield.

So passed several days in praying and cursing, in calling upon God and
wishing for death. The day gave her a slight respite and she trusted in
some miracle. The reports that came from Manila, although they reached
there magnified, said that of the prisoners some had secured their
liberty, thanks to patrons and influence. Some one had to be
sacrificed—who would it be? Juli shuddered and returned home biting her
finger-nails. Then came the night with its terrors, which took on
double proportions and seemed to be converted into realities. Juli
feared to fall asleep, for her slumbers were a continuous nightmare.
Looks of reproach would flash across her eyelids just as soon as they
were closed, complaints and laments pierced her ears. She saw her
father wandering about hungry, without rest or repose; she saw Basilio
dying in the road, pierced by two bullets, just as she had seen the
corpse of that neighbor who had been killed while in the charge of the
Civil Guard. She saw the bonds that cut into the flesh, she saw the
blood pouring from the mouth, she heard Basilio calling to her, “Save
me! Save me! You alone can save me!” Then a burst of laughter would
resound and she would turn her eyes to see her father gazing at her
with eyes full of reproach. Juli would wake up, sit up on her petate,
and draw her hands across her forehead to arrange her hair—cold sweat,
like the sweat of death, moistened it!

“Mother, mother!” she sobbed.

Meanwhile, they who were so carelessly disposing of people’s fates, he
who commanded the legal murders, he who violated justice and made use
of the law to maintain himself by force, slept in peace.

At last a traveler arrived from Manila and reported that all the
prisoners had been set free, all except Basilio, who had no protector.
It was reported in Manila, added the traveler, that the young man would
be deported to the Carolines, having been forced to sign a petition
beforehand, in which he declared that he asked it voluntarily. [67] The
traveler had seen the very steamer that was going to take him away.

This report put an end to all the girl’s hesitation. Besides, her mind
was already quite weak from so many nights of watching and horrible
dreams. Pale and with unsteady eyes, she sought out Sister Bali and, in
a voice that was cause for alarm, told her that she was ready, asking
her to accompany her. Sister Bali thereupon rejoiced and tried to
soothe her, but Juli paid no attention to her, apparently intent only
upon hurrying to the convento. She had decked herself out in her finest
clothes, and even pretended to be quite gay, talking a great deal,
although in a rather incoherent way.

So they set out. Juli went ahead, becoming impatient that her companion
lagged behind. But as they neared the town, her nervous energy began
gradually to abate, she fell silent and wavered in her resolution,
lessened her pace and soon dropped behind, so that Sister Bali had to
encourage her.

“We’ll get there late,” she remonstrated.

Juli now followed, pale, with downcast eyes, which she was afraid to
raise. She felt that the whole world was staring at her and pointing
its finger at her. A vile name whistled in her ears, but still she
disregarded it and continued on her way. Nevertheless, when they came
in sight of the convento, she stopped and began to tremble.

“Let’s go home, let’s go home,” she begged, holding her companion back.

Sister Bali had to take her by the arm and half drag her along,
reassuring her and telling her about the books of the friars. She would
not desert her, so there was nothing to fear. Padre Camorra had other
things in mind—Juli was only a poor country girl.

But upon arriving at the door of the convento, Juli firmly refused to
go in, catching hold of the wall.

“No, no,” she pleaded in terror. “No, no, no! Have pity!”

“But what a fool—”

Sister Bali pushed her gently along, Juli, pallid and with wild
features, offering resistance. The expression of her face said that she
saw death before her.

“All right, let’s go back, if you don’t want to!” at length the good
woman exclaimed in irritation, as she did not believe there was any
real danger. Padre Camorra, in spite of all his reputation, would dare
do nothing before her.

“Let them carry poor Basilio into exile, let them shoot him on the way,
saying that he tried to escape,” she added. “When he’s dead, then
remorse will come. But as for myself, I owe him no favors, so he can’t
reproach me!”

That was the decisive stroke. In the face of that reproach, with wrath
and desperation mingled, like one who rushes to suicide, Juli closed
her eyes in order not to see the abyss into which she was hurling
herself and resolutely entered the convento. A sigh that sounded like
the rattle of death escaped from her lips. Sister Bali followed,
telling her how to act.

That night comments were mysteriously whispered about certain events
which had occurred that afternoon. A girl had leaped from a window of
the convento, falling upon some stones and killing herself. Almost at
the same time another woman had rushed out of the convento to run
through the streets shouting and screaming like a lunatic. The prudent
townsfolk dared not utter any names and many mothers pinched their
daughters for letting slip expressions that might compromise them.

Later, very much later, at twilight, an old man came from a village and
stood calling at the door of the convento, which was closed and guarded
by sacristans. The old man beat the door with his fists and with his
head, while he littered cries stifled and inarticulate, like those of a
dumb person, until he was at length driven away by blows and shoves.
Then he made his way to the gobernadorcillo’s house, but was told that
the gobernadorcillo was not there, he was at the convento; he went to
the Justice of the Peace, but neither was the Justice of the Peace at
home—he had been summoned to the convento; he went to the
teniente-mayor, but he too was at the convento; he directed his steps
to the barracks, but the lieutenant of the Civil Guard was at the
convento. The old man then returned to his village, weeping like a
child. His wails were heard in the middle of the night, causing men to
bite their lips and women to clasp their hands, while the dogs slunk
fearfully back into the houses with their tails between their legs.

“Ah, God, God!” said a poor woman, lean from fasting, “in Thy presence
there is no rich, no poor, no white, no black—Thou wilt grant us
justice!”

“Yes,” rejoined her husband, “just so that God they preach is not a
pure invention, a fraud! They themselves are the first not to believe
in Him.”

At eight o’clock in the evening it was rumored that more than seven
friars, proceeding from neighboring towns, were assembled in the
convento to hold a conference. On the following day, Tandang Selo
disappeared forever from the village, carrying with him his
hunting-spear.



CHAPTER XXXI

THE HIGH OFFICIAL

                       L’Espagne et sa, vertu, l’Espagne et sa grandeur
                       Tout s’en va!—Victor Hugo


The newspapers of Manila were so engrossed in accounts of a notorious
murder committed in Europe, in panegyrics and puffs for various
preachers in the city, in the constantly increasing success of the
French operetta, that they could scarcely devote space to the crimes
perpetrated in the provinces by a band of tulisanes headed by a fierce
and terrible leader who was called Matanglawin. [68] Only when the
object of the attack was a convento or a Spaniard there then appeared
long articles giving frightful details and asking for martial law,
energetic measures, and so on. So it was that they could take no notice
of what had occurred in the town of Tiani, nor was there the slightest
hint or allusion to it. In private circles something was whispered, but
so confused, so vague, and so little consistent, that not even the name
of the victim was known, while those who showed the greatest interest
forgot it quickly, trusting that the affair had been settled in some
way with the wronged family. The only one who knew anything certain was
Padre Camorra, who had to leave the town, to be transferred to another
or to remain for some time in the convento in Manila.

“Poor Padre Camorra!” exclaimed Ben-Zayb in a fit of generosity. “He
was so jolly and had such a good heart!”

It was true that the students had recovered their liberty, thanks to
the exertions of their relatives, who did not hesitate at expense,
gifts, or any sacrifice whatsoever. The first to see himself free, as
was to be expected, was Makaraig, and the last Isagani, because Padre
Florentine did not reach Manila until a week after the events. So many
acts of clemency secured for the General the title of clement and
merciful, which Ben-Zayb hastened to add to his long list of
adjectives.

The only one who did not obtain his liberty was Basilio, since he was
also accused of having in his possession prohibited books. We don’t
know whether this referred to his text-book on legal medicine or to the
pamphlets that were found, dealing with the Philippines, or both
together—the fact is that it was said that prohibited literature was
being secretly sold, and upon the unfortunate boy fell all the weight
of the rod of justice.

It was reported that his Excellency had been thus advised: “It’s
necessary that there be some one, so that the prestige of authority may
be sustained and that it may not be said that we made a great fuss over
nothing. Authority before everything. It’s necessary that some one be
made an example of. Let there be just one, one who, according to Padre
Irene, was the servant of Capitan Tiago—there’ll be no one to enter a
complaint—”

“Servant and student?” asked his Excellency. “That fellow, then! Let it
be he!”

“Your Excellency will pardon me,” observed the high official, who
happened to be present, “but I’ve been told that this boy is a medical
student and his teachers speak well of him. If he remains a prisoner
he’ll lose a year, and as this year he finishes—”

The high official’s interference in behalf of Basilio, instead of
helping, harmed him. For some time there had been between this official
and his Excellency strained relations and bad feelings, augmented by
frequent clashes.

“Yes? So much the greater reason that he should be kept prisoner; a
year longer in his studies, instead of injuring him, will do good, not
only to himself but to all who afterwards fall into his hands. One
doesn’t become a bad physician by extensive practise. So much the more
reason that he should remain! Soon the filibustering reformers will say
that we are not looking out for the country!” concluded his Excellency
with a sarcastic laugh.

The high official realized that he had made a false move and took
Basilio’s case to heart. “But it seems to me that this young man is the
most innocent of all,” he rejoined rather timidly.

“Books have been seized in his possession,” observed the secretary.

“Yes, works on medicine and pamphlets written by Peninsulars, with the
leaves uncut, and besides, what does that signify? Moreover, this young
man was not present at the banquet in the pansitería, he hasn’t mixed
up in anything. As I’ve said, he’s the most innocent—”

“So much the better!” exclaimed his Excellency jocosely. “In that way
the punishment will prove more salutary and exemplary, since it
inspires greater terror. To govern is to act in this way, my dear sir,
as it is often expedient to sacrifice the welfare of one to the welfare
of many. But I’m doing more—from the welfare of one will result the
welfare of all, the principle of endangered authority is preserved,
prestige is respected and maintained. By this act of mine I’m
correcting my own and other people’s faults.”

The high official restrained himself with an effort and, disregarding
the allusion, decided to take another tack. “But doesn’t your
Excellency fear the—responsibility?”

“What have I to fear?” rejoined the General impatiently. “Haven’t I
discretionary powers? Can’t I do what I please for the better
government of these islands? What have I to fear? Can some menial
perhaps arraign me before the tribunals and exact from me
responsibility? Even though he had the means, he would have to consult
the Ministry first, and the Minister—”

He waved his hand and burst out into laughter.

“The Minister who appointed me, the devil knows where he is, and he
will feel honored in being able to welcome me when I return. The
present one, I don’t even think of him, and the devil take him too! The
one that relieves him will find himself in so many difficulties with
his new duties that he won’t be able to fool with trifles. I, my dear
sir, have nothing over me but my conscience, I act according to my
conscience, and my conscience is satisfied, so I don’t care a straw for
the opinions of this one and that. My conscience, my dear sir, my
conscience!”

“Yes, General, but the country—”

“Tut, tut, tut, tut! The country—what have I to do Avith the country?
Have I perhaps contracted any obligations to it? Do I owe my office to
it? Was it the country that elected me?”

A brief pause ensued, during which the high official stood with bowed
head. Then, as if reaching a decision, he raised it to stare fixedly at
the General. Pale and trembling, he said with repressed energy: “That
doesn’t matter, General, that doesn’t matter at all! Your Excellency
has not been chosen by the Filipino people, but by Spain, all the more
reason why you should treat the Filipinos well so that they may not be
able to reproach Spain. The greater reason, General, the greater
reason! Your Excellency, by coming here, has contracted the obligation
to govern justly, to seek the welfare—”

“Am I not doing it?” interrupted his Excellency in exasperation, taking
a step forward. “Haven’t I told you that I am getting from the good of
one the good of all? Are you now going to give me lessons? If you don’t
understand my actions, how am I to blame? Do I compel you to share my
responsibility?”

“Certainly not,” replied the high official, drawing himself up proudly.
“Your Excellency does not compel me, your Excellency cannot compel me,
me, to share your responsibility. I understand mine in quite another
way, and because I have it, I’m going to speak—I’ve held my peace a
long time. Oh, your Excellency needn’t make those gestures, because the
fact that I’ve come here in this or that capacity doesn’t mean that I
have given up my rights, that I have been reduced to the part of a
slave, without voice or dignity.

“I don’t want Spain to lose this beautiful empire, these eight millions
of patient and submissive subjects, who live on hopes and delusions,
but neither do I wish to soil my hands in their barbarous exploitation.
I don’t wish it ever to be said that, the slave-trade abolished, Spain
has continued to cloak it with her banner and perfect it under a wealth
of specious institutions. No, to be great Spain does not have to be a
tyrant, Spain is sufficient unto herself, Spain was greater when she
had only her own territory, wrested from the clutches of the Moor. I
too am a Spaniard, but before being a Spaniard I am a man, and before
Spain and above Spain is her honor, the lofty principles of morality,
the eternal principles of immutable justice! Ah, you are surprised that
I think thus, because you have no idea of the grandeur of the Spanish
name, no, you haven’t any idea of it, you identify it with persons and
interests. To you the Spaniard may be a pirate, he may be a murderer, a
hypocrite, a cheat, anything, just so he keep what he has—but to me the
Spaniard should lose everything, empire, power, wealth, everything,
before his honor! Ah, my dear sir, we protest when we read that might
is placed before right, yet we applaud when in practise we see might
play the hypocrite in not only perverting right but even in using it as
a tool in order to gain control. For the very reason that I love Spain,
I’m speaking now, and I defy your frown!

“I don’t wish that the coming ages accuse Spain of being the stepmother
of the nations, the vampire of races, the tyrant of small islands,
since it would be a horrible mockery of the noble principles of our
ancient kings. How are we carrying out their sacred legacy? They
promised to these islands protection and justice, and we are playing
with the lives and liberties of the inhabitants; they promised
civilization, and we are curtailing it, fearful that they may aspire to
a nobler existence; they promised them light, and we cover their eyes
that they may not witness our orgies; they promised to teach them
virtue and we are encouraging their vice. Instead of peace, wealth, and
justice, confusion reigns, commerce languishes, and skepticism is
fostered among the masses.

“Let us put ourselves in the place of the Filipinos and ask ourselves
what we would do in their place. Ah, in your silence I read their right
to rebel, and if matters do not mend they will rebel some day, and
justice will be on their side, with them will go the sympathy of all
honest men, of every patriot in the world! When a people is denied
light, home, liberty, and justice—things that are essential to life,
and therefore man’s patrimony—that people has the right to treat him
who so despoils it as we would the robber who intercepts us on the
highway. There are no distinctions, there are no exceptions, nothing
but a fact, a right, an aggression, and every honest man who does not
place himself on the side of the wronged makes himself an accomplice
and stains his conscience.

“True, I am not a soldier, and the years are cooling the little fire in
my blood, but just as I would risk being torn to pieces to defend the
integrity of Spain against any foreign invader or against an
unjustified disloyalty in her provinces, so I also assure you that I
would place myself beside the oppressed Filipinos, because I would
prefer to fall in the cause of the outraged rights of humanity to
triumphing with the selfish interests of a nation, even when that
nation be called as it is called—Spain!”

“Do you know when the mail-boat leaves?” inquired his Excellency
coldly, when the high official had finished speaking.

The latter stared at him fixedly, then dropped his head and silently
left the palace.

Outside he found his carriage awaiting him. “Some day when you declare
yourselves independent,” he said somewhat abstractedly to the native
lackey who opened the carriage-door for him, “remember that there were
not lacking in Spain hearts that beat for you and struggled for your
rights!”

“Where, sir?” asked the lackey, who had understood nothing of this and
was inquiring whither they should go.

Two hours later the high official handed in his resignation and
announced his intention of returning to Spain by the next mail-steamer.



CHAPTER XXXII

EFFECT OF THE PASQUINADES


As a result of the events narrated, many mothers ordered their sons
immediately to leave off their studies and devote themselves to
idleness or to agriculture. When the examinations came, suspensions
were plentiful, and he was a rare exception who finished the course, if
he had belonged to the famous association, to which no one paid any
more attention. Pecson, Tadeo, and Juanito Pelaez were all alike
suspended—the first receiving his dismissal with his foolish grin and
declaring his intention of becoming an officer in some court, while
Tadeo, with his eternal holiday realized at last, paid for an
illumination and made a bonfire of his books. Nor did the others get
off much better, and at length they too had to abandon their studies,
to the great satisfaction of their mothers, who always fancy their sons
hanged if they should come to understand what the books teach. Juanito
Pelaez alone took the blow ill, since it forced him to leave school for
his father’s store, with whom he was thenceforward to be associated in
the business: the rascal found the store much less entertaining, but
after some time his friends again noticed his hump appear, a symptom
that his good humor was returning. The rich Makaraig, in view of the
catastrophe, took good care not to expose himself, and having secured a
passport by means of money set out in haste for Europe. It was said
that his Excellency, the Captain-General, in his desire to do good by
good means, and careful of the interests of the Filipinos, hindered the
departure of every one who could not first prove substantially that he
had the money to spend and could live in idleness in European cities.
Among our acquaintances those who got off best were Isagani and
Sandoval: the former passed in the subject he studied under Padre
Fernandez and was suspended in the others, while the latter was able to
confuse the examining-board with his oratory.

Basilio was the only one who did not pass in any subject, who was not
suspended, and who did not go to Europe, for he remained in Bilibid
prison, subjected every three days to examinations, almost always the
same in principle, without other variation than a change of
inquisitors, since it seemed that in the presence of such great guilt
all gave up or fell away in horror. And while the documents moldered or
were shifted about, while the stamped papers increased like the
plasters of an ignorant physician on the body of a hypochondriac,
Basilio became informed of all the details of what had happened in
Tiani, of the death of Juli and the disappearance of Tandang Selo.
Sinong, the abused cochero, who had driven him to San Diego, happened
to be in Manila at that time and called to give him all the news.

Meanwhile, Simoun had recovered his health, or so at least the
newspapers said. Ben-Zayb rendered thanks to “the Omnipotent who
watches over such a precious life,” and manifested the hope that the
Highest would some day reveal the malefactor, whose crime remained
unpunished, thanks to the charity of the victim, who was too closely
following the words of the Great Martyr: Father, forgive them, for they
know not what they do. These and other things Ben-Zayb said in print,
while by mouth he was inquiring whether there was any truth in the
rumor that the opulent jeweler was going to give a grand fiesta, a
banquet such as had never before been seen, in part to celebrate his
recovery and in part as a farewell to the country in which he had
increased his fortune. It was whispered as certain that Simoun, who
would have to leave with the Captain-General, whose command expired in
May, was making every effort to secure from Madrid an extension, and
that he was advising his Excellency to start a campaign in order to
have an excuse for remaining, but it was further reported that for the
first time his Excellency had disregarded the advice of his favorite,
making it a point of honor not to retain for a single additional day
the power that had been conferred upon him, a rumor which encouraged
belief that the fiesta announced would take place; very soon. For the
rest, Simoun remained unfathomable, since he had become very
uncommunicative, showed himself seldom, and smiled mysteriously when
the rumored fiesta was mentioned.

“Come, Señor Sindbad,” Ben-Zayb had once rallied him, “dazzle us with
something Yankee! You owe something to this country.”

“Doubtless!” was Simoun’s response, with a dry smile.

“You’ll throw the house wide open, eh?”

“Maybe, but as I have no house—”

“You ought to have secured Capitan Tiago’s, which Señor Pelaez got for
nothing.”

Simoun became silent, and from that time on he was often seen in the
store of Don Timoteo Pelaez, with whom it was said he had entered into
partnership. Some weeks afterward, in the month of April, it was
rumored that Juanito Pelaez, Don Timoteo’s son, was going to marry
Paulita Gomez, the girl coveted by Spaniards and foreigners.

“Some men are lucky!” exclaimed other envious merchants. “To buy a
house for nothing, sell his consignment of galvanized iron well, get
into partnership with a Simoun, and marry his son to a rich
heiress—just say if those aren’t strokes of luck that all honorable men
don’t have!”

“If you only knew whence came that luck of Señor Pelaez’s!” another
responded, in a tone which indicated that the speaker did know. “It’s
also assured that there’ll be a fiesta and on a grand scale,” was added
with mystery.

It was really true that Paulita was going to marry Juanito Pelaez. Her
love for Isagani had gradually waned, like all first loves based on
poetry and sentiment. The events of the pasquinades and the
imprisonment of the youth had shorn him of all his charms. To whom
would it have occurred to seek danger, to desire to share the fate of
his comrades, to surrender himself, when every one was hiding and
denying any complicity in the affair? It was quixotic, it was madness
that no sensible person in Manila could pardon, and Juanito was quite
right in ridiculing him, representing what a sorry figure he cut when
he went to the Civil Government. Naturally, the brilliant Paulita could
no longer love a young man who so erroneously understood social matters
and whom all condemned. Then she began to reflect. Juanito was clever,
capable, gay, shrewd, the son of a rich merchant of Manila, and a
Spanish mestizo besides—if Don Timoteo was to be believed, a
full-blooded Spaniard. On the other hand, Isagani was a provincial
native who dreamed of forests infested with leeches, he was of doubtful
family, with a priest for an uncle, who would perhaps be an enemy to
luxury and balls, of which she was very fond. One beautiful morning
therefore it occurred to her that she had been a downright fool to
prefer him to his rival, and from that time on Pelaez’s hump steadily
increased. Unconsciously, yet rigorously, Paulita was obeying the law
discovered by Darwin, that the female surrenders herself to the fittest
male, to him who knows how to adapt himself to the medium in which he
lives, and to live in Manila there was no other like Pelaez, who from
his infancy had had chicanery at his finger-tips. Lent passed with its
Holy Week, its array of processions and pompous displays, without other
novelty than a mysterious mutiny among the artillerymen, the cause of
which was never disclosed. The houses of light materials were torn down
in the presence of a troop of cavalry, ready to fall upon the owners in
case they should offer resistance. There was a great deal of weeping
and many lamentations, but the affair did not get beyond that. The
curious, among them Simoun, went to see those who were left homeless,
walking about indifferently and assuring each other that thenceforward
they could sleep in peace.

Towards the end of April, all the fears being now forgotten, Manila was
engrossed with one topic: the fiesta that Don Timoteo Pelaez was going
to celebrate at the wedding of his son, for which the General had
graciously and condescendingly agreed to be the patron. Simoun was
reported to have arranged the matter. The ceremony would be solemnized
two days before the departure of the General, who would honor the house
and make a present to the bridegroom. It was whispered that the jeweler
would pour out cascades of diamonds and throw away handfuls of pearls
in honor of his partner’s son, thus, since he could hold no fiesta of
his own, as he was a bachelor and had no house, improving the
opportunity to dazzle the Filipino people with a memorable farewell.
All Manila prepared to be invited, and never did uneasiness take
stronger hold of the mind than in view of the thought of not being
among those bidden. Friendship with Simoun became a matter of dispute,
and many husbands were forced by their wives to purchase bars of steel
and sheets of galvanized iron in order to make friends with Don Timoteo
Pelaez.



CHAPTER XXXIII

LA ULTIMA RAZÓN [69]


At last the great day arrived. During the morning Simoun had not left
his house, busied as he was in packing his arms and his jewels. His
fabulous wealth was already locked up in the big steel chest with its
canvas cover, there remaining only a few cases containing bracelets and
pins, doubtless gifts that he meant to make. He was going to leave with
the Captain-General, who cared in no way to lengthen his stay, fearful
of what people would say. Malicious ones insinuated that Simoun did not
dare remain alone, since without the General’s support he did not care
to expose himself to the vengeance of the many wretches he had
exploited, all the more reason for which was the fact that the General
who was coming was reported to be a model of rectitude and might make
him disgorge his gains. The superstitious Indians, on the other hand,
believed that Simoun was the devil who did not wish to separate himself
from his prey. The pessimists winked maliciously and said, “The field
laid waste, the locust leaves for other parts!” Only a few, a very few,
smiled and said nothing.

In the afternoon Simoun had given orders to his servant that if there
appeared a young man calling himself Basilio he should be admitted at
once. Then he shut himself up in his room and seemed to become lost in
deep thought. Since his illness the jeweler’s countenance had become
harder and gloomier, while the wrinkles between his eyebrows had
deepened greatly. He did not hold himself so erect as formerly, and his
head was bowed.

So absorbed was he in his meditations that he did not hear a knock at
the door, and it had to be repeated. He shuddered and called out, “Come
in!”

It was Basilio, but how altered! If the change that had taken place in
Simoun during those two months was great, in the young student it was
frightful. His cheeks were hollow, his hair unkempt, his clothing
disordered. The tender melancholy had disappeared from his eyes, and in
its place glittered a dark light, so that it might be said that he had
died and his corpse had revived, horrified with what it had seen in
eternity. If not crime, then the shadow of crime, had fixed itself upon
his whole appearance. Simoun himself was startled and felt pity for the
wretch.

Without any greeting Basilio slowly advanced into the room, and in a
voice that made the jeweler shudder said to him, “Señor Simoun, I’ve
been a wicked son and a bad brother—I’ve overlooked the murder of one
and the tortures of the other, and God has chastised me! Now there
remains to me only one desire, and it is to return evil for evil, crime
for crime, violence for violence!”

Simoun listened in silence, while Basilio continued; “Four months ago
you talked to me about your plans. I refused to take part in them, but
I did wrong, you have been right. Three months and a half ago the
revolution was on the point of breaking out, but I did not then care to
participate in it, and the movement failed. In payment for my conduct
I’ve been arrested and owe my liberty to your efforts only. You are
right and now I’ve come to say to you: put a weapon in my hand and let
the revolution come! I am ready to serve you, along with all the rest
of the unfortunates.”

The cloud that had darkened Simoun’s brow suddenly disappeared, a ray
of triumph darted from his eyes, and like one who has found what he
sought he exclaimed: “I’m right, yes, I’m right! Right and Justice are
on my side, because my cause is that of the persecuted. Thanks, young
man, thanks! You’ve come to clear away my doubts, to end my
hesitation.”

He had risen and his face was beaming. The zeal that had animated him
when four months before he had explained his plans to Basilio in the
wood of his ancestors reappeared in his countenance like a red sunset
after a cloudy day.

“Yes,” he resumed, “the movement failed and many have deserted me
because they saw me disheartened and wavering at the supreme moment. I
still cherished something in my heart, I was not the master of all my
feelings, I still loved! Now everything is dead in me, no longer is
there even a corpse sacred enough for me to respect its sleep. No
longer will there be any vacillation, for you yourself, an idealistic
youth, a gentle dove, understand the necessity and come to spur me to
action. Somewhat late you have opened your eyes, for between you and me
together we might have executed marvelous plans, I above in the higher
circles spreading death amid perfume and gold, brutalizing the vicious
and corrupting or paralyzing the few good, and you below among the
people, among the young men, stirring them to life amid blood and
tears. Our task, instead of being bloody and barbarous, would have been
holy, perfect, artistic, and surely success would have crowned our
efforts. But no intelligence would support me, I encountered fear or
effeminacy among the enlightened classes, selfishness among the rich,
simplicity among the youth, and only in the mountains, in the waste
places, among the outcasts, have I found my men. But no matter now! If
we can’t get a finished statue, rounded out in all its details, of the
rough block we work upon let those to come take charge!”

Seizing the arm of Basilio, who was listening without comprehending all
he said, he led him to the laboratory where he kept his chemical
mixtures. Upon the table was placed a large case made of dark shagreen,
similar to those that hold the silver plate exchanged as gifts among
the rich and powerful. Opening this, Simoun revealed to sight, upon a
bottom of red satin, a lamp of very peculiar shape, Its body was in the
form of a pomegranate as large as a man’s head, with fissures in it
exposing to view the seeds inside, which were fashioned of enormous
carnelians. The covering was of oxidized gold in exact imitation of the
wrinkles on the fruit.

Simoun took it out with great care and, removing the burner, exposed to
view the interior of the tank, which was lined with steel two
centimeters in thickness and which had a capacity of over a liter.
Basilio questioned him with his eyes, for as yet he comprehended
nothing. Without entering upon explanations, Simoun carefully took from
a cabinet a flask and showed the young man the formula written upon it.

“Nitro-glycerin!” murmured Basilio, stepping backward and instinctively
thrusting his hands behind him. “Nitro-glycerin! Dynamite!” Beginning
now to understand, he felt his hair stand on end.

“Yes, nitro-glycerin!” repeated Simoun slowly, with his cold smile and
a look of delight at the glass flask. “It’s also something more than
nitro-glycerin—it’s concentrated tears, repressed hatred, wrongs,
injustice, outrage. It’s the last resort of the weak, force against
force, violence against violence. A moment ago I was hesitating, but
you have come and decided me. This night the most dangerous tyrants
will be blown to pieces, the irresponsible rulers that hide themselves
behind God and the State, whose abuses remain unpunished because no one
can bring them to justice. This night the Philippines will hear the
explosion that will convert into rubbish the formless monument whose
decay I have fostered.”

Basilio was so terrified that his lips worked without producing any
sound, his tongue was paralyzed, his throat parched. For the first time
he was looking at the powerful liquid which he had heard talked of as a
thing distilled in gloom by gloomy men, in open war against society.
Now he had it before him, transparent and slightly yellowish, poured
with great caution into the artistic pomegranate. Simoun looked to him
like the jinnee of the Arabian Nights that sprang from the sea, he took
on gigantic proportions, his head touched the sky, he made the house
tremble and shook the whole city with a shrug of his shoulders. The
pomegranate assumed the form of a colossal sphere, the fissures became
hellish grins whence escaped names and glowing cinders. For the first
time in his life Basilio was overcome with fright and completely lost
his composure.

Simoun, meanwhile, screwed on solidly a curious and complicated
mechanism, put in place a glass chimney, then the bomb, and crowned the
whole with an elegant shade. Then he moved away some distance to
contemplate the effect, inclining his head now to one side, now to the
other, thus better to appreciate its magnificent appearance.

Noticing that Basilio was watching him with questioning and suspicious
eyes, he said, “Tonight there will be a fiesta and this lamp will be
placed in a little dining-kiosk that I’ve had constructed for the
purpose. The lamp will give a brilliant light, bright enough to suffice
for the illumination of the whole place by itself, but at the end of
twenty minutes the light will fade, and then when some one tries to
turn up the wick a cap of fulminate of mercury will explode, the
pomegranate will blow up and with it the dining-room, in the roof and
floor of which I have concealed sacks of powder, so that no one shall
escape.”

There wras a moment’s silence, while Simoun stared at his mechanism and
Basilio scarcely breathed.

“So my assistance is not needed,” observed the young man.

“No, you have another mission to fulfill,” replied Simoun thoughtfully.
“At nine the mechanism will have exploded and the report will have been
heard in the country round, in the mountains, in the caves. The
uprising that I had arranged with the artillerymen was a failure from
lack of plan and timeliness, but this time it won’t be so. Upon hearing
the explosion, the wretched and the oppressed, those who wander about
pursued by force, will sally forth armed to join Cabesang Tales in
Santa Mesa, whence they will fall upon the city, [70] while the
soldiers, whom I have made to believe that the General is shamming an
insurrection in order to remain, will issue from their barracks ready
to fire upon whomsoever I may designate. Meanwhile, the cowed populace,
thinking that the hour of massacre has come, will rush out prepared to
kill or be killed, and as they have neither arms nor organization, you
with some others will put yourself at their head and direct them to the
warehouses of Quiroga, where I keep my rifles. Cabesang Tales and I
will join one another in the city and take possession of it, while you
in the suburbs will seize the bridges and throw up barricades, and then
be ready to come to our aid to butcher not only those opposing the
revolution but also every man who refuses to take up arms and join us.”

“All?” stammered Basilio in a choking voice.

“All!” repeated Simoun in a sinister tone. “All—Indians, mestizos,
Chinese, Spaniards, all who are found to be without courage, without
energy. The race must be renewed! Cowardly fathers will only breed
slavish sons, and it wouldn’t be worth while to destroy and then try to
rebuild with rotten materials. What, do you shudder? Do you tremble, do
you fear to scatter death? What is death? What does a hecatomb of
twenty thousand wretches signify? Twenty thousand miseries less, and
millions of wretches saved from birth! The most timid ruler does not
hesitate to dictate a law that produces misery and lingering death for
thousands and thousands of prosperous and industrious subjects, happy
perchance, merely to satisfy a caprice, a whim, his pride, and yet you
shudder because in one night are to be ended forever the mental
tortures of many helots, because a vitiated and paralytic people has to
die to give place to another, young, active, full of energy!

“What is death? Nothingness, or a dream? Can its specters be compared
to the reality of the agonies of a whole miserable generation? The
needful thing is to destroy the evil, to kill the dragon and bathe the
new people in the blood, in order to make it strong and invulnerable.
What else is the inexorable law of Nature, the law of strife in which
the weak has to succumb so that the vitiated species be not perpetuated
and creation thus travel backwards? Away then with effeminate scruples!
Fulfill the eternal laws, foster them, and then the earth will be so
much the more fecund the more it is fertilized with blood, and the
thrones the more solid the more they rest upon crimes and corpses. Let
there be no hesitation, no doubtings! What is the pain of death? A
momentary sensation, perhaps confused, perhaps agreeable, like the
transition from waking to sleep. What is it that is being destroyed?
Evil, suffering—feeble weeds, in order to set in their place luxuriant
plants. Do you call that destruction? I should call it creating,
producing, nourishing, vivifying!”

Such bloody sophisms, uttered with conviction and coolness, overwhelmed
the youth, weakened as he was by more than three months in prison and
blinded by his passion for revenge, so he was not in a mood to analyze
the moral basis of the matter. Instead of replying that the worst and
cowardliest of men is always something more than a plant, because he
has a soul and an intelligence, which, however vitiated and brutalized
they may be, can be redeemed; instead of replying that man has no right
to dispose of one life for the benefit of another, that the right to
life is inherent in every individual like the right to liberty and to
light; instead of replying that if it is an abuse on the part of
governments to punish in a culprit the faults and crimes to which they
have driven him by their own negligence or stupidity, how much more so
would it be in a man, however great and however unfortunate he might
be, to punish in a wretched people the faults of its governments and
its ancestors; instead of declaring that God alone can use such
methods, that God can destroy because He can create, God who holds in
His hands recompense, eternity, and the future, to justify His acts,
and man never; instead of these reflections, Basilio merely interposed
a cant reflection.

“What will the world say at the sight of such butchery?”

“The world will applaud, as usual, conceding the right of the
strongest, the most violent!” replied Simoun with his cruel smile.
“Europe applauded when the western nations sacrificed millions of
Indians in America, and not by any means to found nations much more
moral or more pacific: there is the North with its egotistic liberty,
its lynch-law, its political frauds—the South with its turbulent
republics, its barbarous revolutions, civil wars, pronunciamientos, as
in its mother Spain! Europe applauded when the powerful Portugal
despoiled the Moluccas, it applauds while England is destroying the
primitive races in the Pacific to make room for its emigrants. Europe
will applaud as the end of a drama, the close of a tragedy, is
applauded, for the vulgar do not fix their attention on principles,
they look only at results. Commit the crime well, and you will be
admired and have more partizans than if you had carried out virtuous
actions with modesty and timidity.”

“Exactly,” rejoined the youth, “what does it matter to me, after all,
whether they praise or censure, when this world takes no care of the
oppressed, of the poor, and of weak womankind? What obligations have I
to recognize toward society when it has recognized none toward me?”

“That’s what I like to hear,” declared the tempter triumphantly. He
took a revolver from a case and gave it to Basilio, saying, “At ten
o’clock wait for me in front of the church of St. Sebastian to receive
my final instructions. Ah, at nine you must be far, very far from Calle
Anloague.”

Basilio examined the weapon, loaded it, and placed it in the inside
pocket of his coat, then took his leave with a curt, “I’ll see you
later.”



CHAPTER XXXIV

THE WEDDING


Once in the street, Basilio began to consider how he might spend the
time until the fatal hour arrived, for it was then not later than seven
o’clock. It was the vacation period and all the students were back in
their towns, Isagani being the only one who had not cared to leave, but
he had disappeared that morning and no one knew his whereabouts—so
Basilio had been informed when after leaving the prison he had gone to
visit his friend and ask him for lodging. The young man did not know
where to go, for he had no money, nothing but the revolver. The memory
of the lamp filled his imagination, the great catastrophe that would
occur within two hours. Pondering over this, he seemed to see the men
who passed before his eyes walking without heads, and he felt a thrill
of ferocious joy in telling himself that, hungry and destitute, he that
night was going to be dreaded, that from a poor student and servant,
perhaps the sun would see him transformed into some one terrible and
sinister, standing upon pyramids of corpses, dictating laws to all
those who were passing before his gaze now in magnificent carriages. He
laughed like one condemned to death and patted the butt of the
revolver. The boxes of cartridges were also in his pockets.

A question suddenly occurred to him—where would the drama begin? In his
bewilderment he had not thought of asking Simoun, but the latter had
warned him to keep away from Calle Anloague. Then came a suspicion:
that afternoon, upon leaving the prison, he had proceeded to the former
house of Capitan Tiago to get his few personal effects and had found it
transformed, prepared for a fiesta—the wedding of Juanito Pelaez!
Simoun had spoken of a fiesta.

At this moment he noticed passing in front of him a long line of
carriages filled with ladies and gentlemen, conversing in a lively
manner, and he even thought he could make out big bouquets of flowers,
but he gave the detail no thought. The carriages were going toward
Calle Rosario and in meeting those that came down off the Bridge of
Spain had to move along slowly and stop frequently. In one he saw
Juanito Pelaez at the side of a woman dressed in white with a
transparent veil, in whom he recognized Paulita Gomez.

“Paulita!” he ejaculated in surprise, realizing that it was indeed she,
in a bridal gown, along with Juanito Pelaez, as though they were just
coming from the church. “Poor Isagani!” he murmured, “what can have
become of him?”

He thought for a while about his friend, a great and generous soul, and
mentally asked himself if it would not be well to tell him about the
plan, then answered himself that Isagani would never take part in such
a butchery. They had not treated Isagani as they had him.

Then he thought that had there been no imprisonment, he would have been
betrothed, or a husband, at this time, a licentiate in medicine, living
and working in some corner of his province. The ghost of Juli, crushed
in her fall, crossed his mind, and dark flames of hatred lighted his
eyes; again he caressed the butt of the revolver, regretting that the
terrible hour had not yet come. Just then he saw Simoun come out of the
door of his house, carrying in his hands the case containing the lamp,
carefully wrapped up, and enter a carriage, which then followed those
bearing the bridal party. In order not to lose track of Simoun, Basilio
took a good look at the cochero and with astonishment recognized in him
the wretch who had driven him to San Diego, Sinong, the fellow
maltreated by the Civil Guard, the same who had come to the prison to
tell him about the occurrences in Tiani.

Conjecturing that Calle Anloague was to be the scene of action, thither
the youth directed his steps, hurrying forward and getting ahead of the
carriages, which were, in fact, all moving toward the former house of
Capitan Tiago—there they were assembling in search of a ball, but
actually to dance in the air! Basilio smiled when he noticed the pairs
of civil-guards who formed the escort, and from their number he could
guess the importance of the fiesta and the guests. The house overflowed
with people and poured floods of light from its windows, the entrance
was carpeted and strewn with flowers. Upstairs there, perhaps in his
former solitary room, an orchestra was playing lively airs, which did
not completely drown the confused tumult of talk and laughter.

Don Timoteo Pelaez was reaching the pinnacle of fortune, and the
reality surpassed his dreams. He was, at last, marrying his son to the
rich Gomez heiress, and, thanks to the money Simoun had lent him, he
had royally furnished that big house, purchased for half its value, and
was giving in it a splendid fiesta, with the foremost divinities of the
Manila Olympus for his guests, to gild him with the light of their
prestige. Since that morning there had been recurring to him, with the
persistence of a popular song, some vague phrases that he had read in
the communion service. “Now has the fortunate hour come! Now draws nigh
the happy moment! Soon there will be fulfilled in you the admirable
words of Simoun—‘I live, and yet not I alone, but the Captain-General
liveth in me.’” The Captain-General the patron of his son! True, he had
not attended the ceremony, where Don Custodio had represented him, but
he would come to dine, he would bring a wedding-gift, a lamp which not
even Aladdin’s—between you and me, Simoun was presenting the lamp.
Timoteo, what more could you desire?

The transformation that Capitan Tiago’s house had undergone was
considerable—it had been richly repapered, while the smoke and the
smell of opium had been completely eradicated. The immense sala,
widened still more by the colossal mirrors that infinitely multiplied
the lights of the chandeliers, was carpeted throughout, for the salons
of Europe had carpets, and even though the floor was of wide boards
brilliantly polished, a carpet it must have too, since nothing should
be lacking. The rich furniture of Capitan Tiago had disappeared and in
its place was to be seen another kind, in the style of Louis XV. Heavy
curtains of red velvet, trimmed with gold, with the initials of the
bridal couple worked on them, and upheld by garlands of artificial
orange-blossoms, hung as portières and swept the floor with their wide
fringes, likewise of gold. In the corners appeared enormous Japanese
vases, alternating with those of Sèvres of a clear dark-blue, placed
upon square pedestals of carved wood.

The only decorations not in good taste were the screaming chromos which
Don Timoteo had substituted for the old drawings and pictures of saints
of Capitan Tiago. Simoun had been unable to dissuade him, for the
merchant did not want oil-paintings—some one might ascribe them to
Filipino artists! He, a patron of Filipino artists, never! On that
point depended his peace of mind and perhaps his life, and he knew how
to get along in the Philippines! It is true that he had heard foreign
painters mentioned—Raphael, Murillo, Velasquez—but he did not know
their addresses, and then they might prove to be somewhat seditious.
With the chromos he ran no risk, as the Filipinos did not make them,
they came cheaper, the effect was the same, if not better, the colors
brighter and the execution very fine. Don’t say that Don Timoteo did
not know how to comport himself in the Philippines!

The large hallway was decorated with flowers, having been converted
into a dining-room, with a long table for thirty persons in the center,
and around the sides, pushed against the walls, other smaller ones for
two or three persons each. Bouquets of flowers, pyramids of fruits
among ribbons and lights, covered their centers. The groom’s place was
designated by a bunch of roses and the bride’s by another of
orange-blossoms and tuberoses. In the presence of so much finery and
flowers one could imagine that nymphs in gauzy garments and Cupids with
iridescent wings were going to serve nectar and ambrosia to aerial
guests, to the sound of lyres and Aeolian harps.

But the table for the greater gods was not there, being placed yonder
in the middle of the wide azotea within a magnificent kiosk constructed
especially for the occasion. A lattice of gilded wood over which
clambered fragrant vines screened the interior from the eyes of the
vulgar without impeding the free circulation of air to preserve the
coolness necessary at that season. A raised platform lifted the table
above the level of the others at which the ordinary mortals were going
to dine and an arch decorated by the best artists would protect the
august heads from the jealous gaze of the stars.

On this table were laid only seven plates. The dishes were of solid
silver, the cloth and napkins of the finest linen, the wines the most
costly and exquisite. Don Timoteo had sought the most rare and
expensive in everything, nor would he have hesitated at crime had he
been assured that the Captain-General liked to eat human flesh.



CHAPTER XXXV

THE FIESTA

                                              “Danzar sobre un volcán.”


By seven in the evening the guests had begun to arrive: first, the
lesser divinities, petty government officials, clerks, and merchants,
with the most ceremonious greetings and the gravest airs at the start,
as if they were parvenus, for so much light, so many decorations, and
so much glassware had some effect. Afterwards, they began to be more at
ease, shaking their fists playfully, with pats on the shoulders, and
even familiar slaps on the back. Some, it is true, adopted a rather
disdainful air, to let it be seen that they were accustomed to better
things—of course they were! There was one goddess who yawned, for she
found everything vulgar and even remarked that she was ravenously
hungry, while another quarreled with her god, threatening to box his
ears.

Don Timoteo bowed here and bowed there, scattered his best smiles,
tightened his belt, stepped backward, turned halfway round, then
completely around, and so on again and again, until one goddess could
not refrain from remarking to her neighbor, under cover of her fan: “My
dear, how important the old man is! Doesn’t he look like a
jumping-jack?”

Later came the bridal couple, escorted by Doña Victorina and the rest
of the party. Congratulations, hand-shakings, patronizing pats for the
groom: for the bride, insistent stares and anatomical observations on
the part of the men, with analyses of her gown, her toilette,
speculations as to her health and strength on the part of the women.

“Cupid and Psyche appearing on Olympus,” thought Ben-Zayb, making a
mental note of the comparison to spring it at some better opportunity.
The groom had in fact the mischievous features of the god of love, and
with a little good-will his hump, which the severity of his frock coat
did not altogether conceal, could be taken for a quiver.

Don Timoteo began to feel his belt squeezing him, the corns on his feet
began to ache, his neck became tired, but still the General had not
come. The greater gods, among them Padre Irene and Padre Salvi, had
already arrived, it was true, but the chief thunderer was still
lacking. The poor man became uneasy, nervous; his heart beat violently,
but still he had to bow and smile; he sat down, he arose, failed to
hear what was said to him, did not say what he meant. In the meantime,
an amateur god made remarks to him about his chromos, criticizing them
with the statement that they spoiled the walls.

“Spoil the walls!” repeated Don Timoteo, with a smile and a desire to
choke him. “But they were made in Europe and are the most costly I
could get in Manila! Spoil the walls!” Don Timoteo swore to himself
that on the very next day he would present for payment all the chits
that the critic had signed in his store.

Whistles resounded, the galloping of horses was heard—at last! “The
General! The Captain-General!”

Pale with emotion, Don Timoteo, dissembling the pain of his corns and
accompanied by his son and some of the greater gods, descended to
receive the Mighty Jove. The pain at his belt vanished before the
doubts that now assailed him: should he frame a smile or affect
gravity; should he extend his hand or wait for the General to offer
his? Carambas! Why had nothing of this occurred to him before, so that
he might have consulted his good friend Simoun?

To conceal his agitation, he whispered to his son in a low, shaky
voice, “Have you a speech prepared?”

“Speeches are no longer in vogue, papa, especially on such an occasion
as this.”

Jupiter arrived in the company of Juno, who was converted into a tower
of artificial lights—with diamonds in her hair, diamonds around her
neck, on her arms, on her shoulders, she was literally covered with
diamonds. She was arrayed in a magnificent silk gown having a long
train decorated with embossed flowers.

His Excellency literally took possession of the house, as Don Timoteo
stammeringly begged him to do. [71] The orchestra played the royal
march while the divine couple majestically ascended the carpeted
stairway.

Nor was his Excellency’s gravity altogether affected. Perhaps for the
first time since his arrival in the islands he felt sad, a strain of
melancholy tinged his thoughts. This was the last triumph of his three
years of government, and within two days he would descend forever from
such an exalted height. What was he leaving behind? His Excellency did
not care to turn his head backwards, but preferred to look ahead, to
gaze into the future. Although he was carrying away a fortune, large
sums to his credit were awaiting him in European banks, and he had
residences, yet he had injured many, he had made enemies at the Court,
the high official was waiting for him there. Other Generals had
enriched themselves as rapidly as he, and now they were ruined. Why not
stay longer, as Simoun had advised him to do? No, good taste before
everything else. The bows, moreover, were not now so profound as
before, he noticed insistent stares and even looks of dislike, but
still he replied affably and even attempted to smile.

“It’s plain that the sun is setting,” observed Padre Irene in
Ben-Zayb’s ear. “Many now stare him in the face.”

The devil with the curate—that was just what he was going to remark!

“My dear,” murmured into the ear of a neighbor the lady who had
referred to Don Timoteo as a jumping-jack, “did you ever see such a
skirt?”

“Ugh, the curtains from the Palace!”

“You don’t say! But it’s true! They’re carrying everything away. You’ll
see how they make wraps out of the carpets.”

“That only goes to show that she has talent and taste,” observed her
husband, reproving her with a look. “Women should be economical.” This
poor god was still suffering from the dressmaker’s bill.

“My dear, give me curtains at twelve pesos a yard, and you’ll see if I
put on these rags!” retorted the goddess in pique. “Heavens! You can
talk when you have done something fine like that to give you the
right!”

Meanwhile, Basilio stood before the house, lost in the throng of
curious spectators, counting those who alighted from their carriages.
When he looked upon so many persons, happy and confident, when he saw
the bride and groom followed by their train of fresh and innocent
little girls, and reflected that they were going to meet there a
horrible death, he was sorry and felt his hatred waning within him. He
wanted to save so many innocents, he thought of notifying the police,
but a carriage drove up to set down Padre Salvi and Padre Irene, both
beaming with content, and like a passing cloud his good intentions
vanished. “What does it matter to me?” he asked himself. “Let the
righteous suffer with the sinners.”

Then he added, to silence his scruples: “I’m not an informer, I mustn’t
abuse the confidence he has placed in me. I owe him, him more than I do
them: he dug my mother’s grave, they killed her! What have I to do with
them? I did everything possible to be good and useful, I tried to
forgive and forget, I suffered every imposition, and only asked that
they leave me in peace. I got in no one’s way. What have they done to
me? Let their mangled limbs fly through the air! We’ve suffered
enough.”

Then he saw Simoun alight with the terrible lamp in his hands, saw him
cross the entrance with bowed head, as though deep in thought. Basilio
felt his heart beat fainter, his feet and hands turn cold, while the
black silhouette of the jeweler assumed fantastic shapes enveloped in
flames. There at the foot of the stairway Simoun checked his steps, as
if in doubt, and Basilio held his breath. But the hesitation was
transient—Simoun raised his head, resolutely ascended the stairway, and
disappeared.

It then seemed to the student that the house was going to blow up at
any moment, and that walls, lamps, guests, roof, windows, orchestra,
would be hurtling through the air like a handful of coals in the midst
of an infernal explosion. He gazed about him and fancied that he saw
corpses in place of idle spectators, he saw them torn to shreds, it
seemed to him that the air was filled with flames, but his calmer self
triumphed over this transient hallucination, which was due somewhat to
his hunger.

“Until he comes out, there’s no danger,” he said to himself. “The
Captain-General hasn’t arrived yet.”

He tried to appear calm and control the convulsive trembling in his
limbs, endeavoring to divert his thoughts to other things. Something
within was ridiculing him, saying, “If you tremble now, before the
supreme moment, how will you conduct yourself when you see blood
flowing, houses burning, and bullets whistling?”

His Excellency arrived, but the young man paid no attention to him. He
was watching the face of Simoun, who was among those that descended to
receive him, and he read in that implacable countenance the sentence of
death for all those men, so that fresh terror seized upon him. He felt
cold, he leaned against the wall, and, with his eyes fixed on the
windows and his ears cocked, tried to guess what might be happening. In
the sala he saw the crowd surround Simoun to look at the lamp, he heard
congratulations and exclamations of admiration—the words “dining-room,”
“novelty,” were repeated many times—he saw the General smile and
conjectured that the novelty was to be exhibited that very night, by
the jeweler’s arrangement, on the table whereat his Excellency was to
dine. Simoun disappeared, followed by a crowd of admirers.

At that supreme moment his good angel triumphed, he forgot his hatreds,
he forgot Juli, he wanted to save the innocent. Come what might, he
would cross the street and try to enter. But Basilio had forgotten that
he was miserably dressed. The porter stopped him and accosted him
roughly, and finally, upon his insisting, threatened to call the
police.

Just then Simoun came down, slightly pale, and the porter turned from
Basilio to salute the jeweler as though he had been a saint passing.
Basilio realized from the expression of Simoun’s face that he was
leaving the fated house forever, that the lamp was lighted. Alea jacta
est! Seized by the instinct of self-preservation, he thought then of
saving himself. It might occur to any of the guests through curiosity
to tamper with the wick and then would come the explosion to overwhelm
them all. Still he heard Simoun say to the cochero, “The Escolta,
hurry!”

Terrified, dreading that he might at any moment hear the awful
explosion, Basilio hurried as fast as his legs would carry him to get
away from the accursed spot, but his legs seemed to lack the necessary
agility, his feet slipped on the sidewalk as though they were moving
but not advancing. The people he met blocked the way, and before he had
gone twenty steps he thought that at least five minutes had elapsed.

Some distance away he stumbled against a young man who was standing
with his head thrown back, gazing fixedly at the house, and in him he
recognized Isagani. “What are you doing here?” he demanded. “Come
away!”

Isagani stared at him vaguely, smiled sadly, and again turned his gaze
toward the open balconies, across which was revealed the ethereal
silhouette of the bride clinging to the groom’s arm as they moved
slowly out of sight.

“Come, Isagani, let’s get away from that house. Come!” Basilio urged in
a hoarse voice, catching his friend by the arm.

Isagani gently shook himself free and continued to stare with the same
sad smile upon his lips.

“For God’s sake, let’s get away from here!”

“Why should I go away? Tomorrow it will not be she.”

There was so much sorrow in those words that Basilio for a moment
forgot his own terror. “Do you want to die?” he demanded.

Isagani shrugged his shoulders and continued to gaze toward the house.

Basilio again tried to drag him away. “Isagani, Isagani, listen to me!
Let’s not waste any time! That house is mined, it’s going to blow up at
any moment, by the least imprudent act, the least curiosity! Isagani,
all will perish in its ruins.”

“In its ruins?” echoed Isagani, as if trying to understand, but without
removing his gaze from the window.

“Yes, in its ruins, yes, Isagani! For God’s sake, come! I’ll explain
afterwards. Come! One who has been more unfortunate than either you or
I has doomed them all. Do you see that white, clear light, like an
electric lamp, shining from the azotea? It’s the light of death! A lamp
charged with dynamite, in a mined dining-room, will burst and not a rat
will escape alive. Come!”

“No,” answered Isagani, shaking his head sadly. “I want to stay here, I
want to see her for the last time. Tomorrow, you see, she will be
something different.”

“Let fate have its way!” Basilio then exclaimed, hurrying away.

Isagani watched his friend rush away with a precipitation that
indicated real terror, but continued to stare toward the charmed
window, like the cavalier of Toggenburg waiting for his sweetheart to
appear, as Schiller tells. Now the sala was deserted, all having
repaired to the dining-rooms, and it occurred to Isagani that Basilio’s
fears may have been well-founded. He recalled the terrified countenance
of him who was always so calm and composed, and it set him to thinking.

Suddenly an idea appeared clear in his imagination—the house was going
to blow up and Paulita was there, Paulita was going to die a frightful
death. In the presence of this idea everything was forgotten: jealousy,
suffering, mental torture, and the generous youth thought only of his
love. Without reflecting, without hesitation, he ran toward the house,
and thanks to his stylish clothes and determined mien, easily secured
admittance.

While these short scenes were occurring in the street, in the
dining-kiosk of the greater gods there was passed from hand to hand a
piece of parchment on which were written in red ink these fateful
words:


        Mene, Tekel, Phares [72]
        Juan Crisostomo Ibarra


“Juan Crisostomo Ibarra? Who is he?” asked his Excellency, handing the
paper to his neighbor.

“A joke in very bad taste!” exclaimed Don Custodio. “To sign the name
of a filibuster dead more than ten years!”

“A filibuster!”

“It’s a seditious joke!”

“There being ladies present—”

Padre Irene looked around for the joker and saw Padre Salvi, who was
seated at the right of the Countess, turn as white as his napkin, while
he stared at the mysterious words with bulging eyes. The scene of the
sphinx recurred to him.

“What’s the matter, Padre Salvi?” he asked. “Do you recognize your
friend’s signature?”

Padre Salvi did not reply. He made an effort to speak and without being
conscious of what he was doing wiped his forehead with his napkin.

“What has happened to your Reverence?”

“It is his very handwriting!” was the whispered reply in a scarcely
perceptible voice. “It’s the very handwriting of Ibarra.” Leaning
against the back of his chair, he let his arms fall as though all
strength had deserted him.

Uneasiness became converted into fright, they all stared at one another
without uttering a single word. His Excellency started to rise, but
apprehending that such a move would be ascribed to fear, controlled
himself and looked about him. There were no soldiers present, even the
waiters were unknown to him.

“Let’s go on eating, gentlemen,” he exclaimed, “and pay no attention to
the joke.” But his voice, instead of reassuring, increased the general
uneasiness, for it trembled.

“I don’t suppose that that Mene, Tekel, Phares, means that we’re to be
assassinated tonight?” speculated Don Custodio.

All remained motionless, but when he added, “Yet they might poison us,”
they leaped up from their chairs.

The light, meanwhile, had begun slowly to fade. “The lamp is going
out,” observed the General uneasily. “Will you turn up the wick, Padre
Irene?”

But at that instant, with the swiftness of a flash of lightning, a
figure rushed in, overturning a chair and knocking a servant down, and
in the midst of the general surprise seized the lamp, rushed to the
azotea, and threw it into the river. The whole thing happened in a
second and the dining-kiosk was left in darkness.

The lamp had already struck the water before the servants could cry
out, “Thief, thief!” and rush toward the azotea. “A revolver!” cried
one of them. “A revolver, quick! After the thief!”

But the figure, more agile than they, had already mounted the
balustrade and before a light could be brought, precipitated itself
into the river, striking the water with a loud splash.



CHAPTER XXXVI

BEN-ZAYB’S AFFLICTIONS


Immediately upon hearing of the incident, after lights had been brought
and the scarcely dignified attitudes of the startled gods revealed,
Ben-Zayb, filled with holy indignation, and with the approval of the
press-censor secured beforehand, hastened home—an entresol where he
lived in a mess with others—to write an article that would be the
sublimest ever penned under the skies of the Philippines. The
Captain-General would leave disconsolate if he did not first enjoy his
dithyrambs, and this Ben-Zayb, in his kindness of heart, could not
allow. Hence he sacrificed the dinner and ball, nor did he sleep that
night.

Sonorous exclamations of horror, of indignation, to fancy that the
world was smashing to pieces and the stars, the eternal stars, were
clashing together! Then a mysterious introduction, filled with
allusions, veiled hints, then an account of the affair, and the final
peroration. He multiplied the flourishes and exhausted all his
euphemisms in describing the drooping shoulders and the tardy baptism
of salad his Excellency had received on his Olympian brow, he eulogized
the agility with which the General had recovered a vertical position,
placing his head where his legs had been, and vice versa, then intoned
a hymn to Providence for having so solicitously guarded those sacred
bones. The paragraph turned out to be so perfect that his Excellency
appeared as a hero, and fell higher, as Victor Hugo said.

He wrote, erased, added, and polished, so that, without wanting in
veracity—this was his special merit as a journalist—the whole would be
an epic, grand for the seven gods, cowardly and base for the unknown
thief, “who had executed himself, terror-stricken, and in the very act
convinced of the enormity of his crime.”

He explained Padre Irene’s act of plunging under the table as “an
impulse of innate valor, which the habit of a God of peace and
gentleness, worn throughout a whole life, had been unable to
extinguish,” for Padre Irene had tried to hurl himself upon the thief
and had taken a straight course along the submensal route. In passing,
he spoke of submarine passages, mentioned a project of Don Custodio’s,
called attention to the liberal education and wide travels of the
priest. Padre Salvi’s swoon was the excessive sorrow that took
possession of the virtuous Franciscan to see the little fruit borne
among the Indians by his pious sermons, while the immobility and fright
of the other guests, among them the Countess, who “sustained” Padre
Salvi (she grabbed him), were the serenity and sang-froid of heroes,
inured to danger in the performance of their duties, beside whom the
Roman senators surprised by the Gallic invaders were nervous
schoolgirls frightened at painted cockroaches.

Afterwards, to form a contrast, the picture of the thief: fear,
madness, confusion, the fierce look, the distorted features, and—force
of moral superiority in the race—his religious awe to see assembled
there such august personages! Here came in opportunely a long
imprecation, a harangue, a diatribe against the perversion of good
customs, hence the necessity of a permanent military tribunal, “a
declaration of martial law within the limits already so declared,
special legislation, energetic and repressive, because it is in every
way needful, it is of imperative importance to impress upon the
malefactors and criminals that if the heart is generous and paternal
for those who are submissive and obedient to the law, the hand is
strong, firm, inexorable, hard, and severe for those who against all
reason fail to respect it and who insult the sacred institutions of the
fatherland. Yes, gentlemen, this is demanded not only for the welfare
of these islands, not only for the welfare of all mankind, but also in
the name of Spain, the honor of the Spanish name, the prestige of the
Iberian people, because before all things else Spaniards we are, and
the flag of Spain,” etc.

He terminated the article with this farewell: “Go in peace, gallant
warrior, you who with expert hand have guided the destinies of this
country in such calamitous times! Go in peace to breathe the balmy
breezes of Manzanares! [73] We shall remain here like faithful
sentinels to venerate your memory, to admire your wise dispositions, to
avenge the infamous attempt upon your splendid gift, which we will
recover even if we have to dry up the seas! Such a precious relic will
be for this country an eternal monument to your splendor, your presence
of mind, your gallantry!”

In this rather confused way he concluded the article and before dawn
sent it to the printing-office, of course with the censor’s permit.
Then he went to sleep like Napoleon, after he had arranged the plan for
the battle of Jena.

But at dawn he was awakened to have the sheets of copy returned with a
note from the editor saying that his Excellency had positively and
severely forbidden any mention of the affair, and had further ordered
the denial of any versions and comments that might get abroad,
discrediting them as exaggerated rumors.

To Ben-Zayb this blow was the murder of a beautiful and sturdy child,
born and nurtured with such great pain and fatigue. Where now hurl the
Catilinarian pride, the splendid exhibition of warlike crime-avenging
materials? And to think that within a month or two he was going to
leave the Philippines, and the article could not be published in Spain,
since how could he say those things about the criminals of Madrid,
where other ideas prevailed, where extenuating circumstances were
sought, where facts were weighed, where there were juries, and so on?
Articles such as his were like certain poisonous rums that are
manufactured in Europe, good enough to be sold among the negroes, good
for negroes, [74] with the difference that if the negroes did not drink
them they would not be destroyed, while Ben-Zayb’s articles, whether
the Filipinos read them or not, had their effect.

“If only some other crime might be committed today or tomorrow,” he
mused.

With the thought of that child dead before seeing the light, those
frozen buds, and feeling his eyes fill with tears, he dressed himself
to call upon the editor. But the editor shrugged his shoulders; his
Excellency had forbidden it because if it should be divulged that seven
of the greater gods had let themselves be surprised and robbed by a
nobody, while they brandished knives and forks, that would endanger the
integrity of the fatherland! So he had ordered that no search be made
for the lamp or the thief, and had recommended to his successors that
they should not run the risk of dining in any private house, without
being surrounded by halberdiers and guards. As those who knew anything
about the events that night in Don Timoteo’s house were for the most
part military officials and government employees, it was not difficult
to suppress the affair in public, for it concerned the integrity of the
fatherland. Before this name Ben-Zayb bowed his head heroically,
thinking about Abraham, Guzman El Bueno, [75] or at least, Brutus and
other heroes of antiquity.

Such a sacrifice could not remain unrewarded, the gods of journalism
being pleased with Abraham Ben-Zayb. Almost upon the hour came the
reporting angel bearing the sacrificial lamb in the shape of an assault
committed at a country-house on the Pasig, where certain friars were
spending the heated season. Here was his opportunity and Ben-Zayb
praised his gods.

“The robbers got over two thousand pesos, leaving badly wounded one
friar and two servants. The curate defended himself as well as he could
behind a chair, which was smashed in his hands.”

“Wait, wait!” said Ben-Zayb, taking notes. “Forty or fifty outlaws
traitorously—revolvers, bolos, shotguns, pistols—lion at
bay—chair—splinters flying—barbarously wounded—ten thousand pesos!”

So great was his enthusiasm that he was not content with mere reports,
but proceeded in person to the scene of the crime, composing on the
road a Homeric description of the fight. A harangue in the mouth of the
leader? A scornful defiance on the part of the priest? All the
metaphors and similes applied to his Excellency, Padre Irene, and Padre
Salvi would exactly fit the wounded friar and the description of the
thief would serve for each of the outlaws. The imprecation could be
expanded, since he could talk of religion, of the faith, of charity, of
the ringing of bells, of what the Indians owed to the friars, he could
get sentimental and melt into Castelarian [76] epigrams and lyric
periods. The señoritas of the city would read the article and murmur,
“Ben-Zayb, bold as a lion and tender as a lamb!”

But when he reached the scene, to his great astonishment he learned
that the wounded friar was no other than Padre Camorra, sentenced by
his Provincial to expiate in the pleasant country-house on the banks of
the Pasig his pranks in Tiani. He had a slight scratch on his hand and
a bruise on his head received from flattening himself out on the floor.
The robbers numbered three or four, armed only with bolos, the sum
stolen fifty pesos!

“It won’t do!” exclaimed Ben-Zayb. “Shut up! You don’t know what you’re
talking about.”

“How don’t I know, puñales?”

“Don’t be a fool—the robbers must have numbered more.”

“You ink-slinger—”

So they had quite an altercation. What chiefly concerned Ben-Zayb was
not to throw away the article, to give importance to the affair, so
that he could use the peroration.

But a fearful rumor cut short their dispute. The robbers caught had
made some important revelations. One of the outlaws under Matanglawin
(Cabesang Tales) had made an appointment with them to join his band in
Santa Mesa, thence to sack the conventos and houses of the wealthy.
They would be guided by a Spaniard, tall and sunburnt, with white hair,
who said that he was acting under the orders of the General, whose
great friend he was, and they had been further assured that the
artillery and various regiments would join them, wherefore they were to
entertain no fear at all. The tulisanes would be pardoned and have a
third part of the booty assigned to them. The signal was to have been a
cannon-shot, but having waited for it in vain the tulisanes, thinking
themselves deceived, separated, some going back to their homes, some
returning to the mountains vowing vengeance on the Spaniard, who had
thus failed twice to keep his word. Then they, the robbers caught, had
decided to do something on their own account, attacking the
country-house that they found closest at hand, resolving religiously to
give two-thirds of the booty to the Spaniard with white hair, if
perchance he should call upon them for it.

The description being recognized as that of Simoun, the declaration was
received as an absurdity and the robber subjected to all kinds of
tortures, including the electric machine, for his impious blasphemy.
But news of the disappearance of the jeweler having attracted the
attention of the whole Escolta, and the sacks of powder and great
quantities of cartridges having been discovered in his house, the story
began to wear an appearance of truth. Mystery began to enwrap the
affair, enveloping it in clouds; there were whispered conversations,
coughs, suspicious looks, suggestive comments, and trite second-hand
remarks. Those who were on the inside were unable to get over their
astonishment, they put on long faces, turned pale, and but little was
wanting for many persons to lose their minds in realizing certain
things that had before passed unnoticed.

“We’ve had a narrow escape! Who would have said—”

In the afternoon Ben-Zayb, his pockets filled with revolvers and
cartridges, went to see Don Custodio, whom he found hard at work over a
project against American jewelers. In a hushed voice he whispered
between the palms of his hands into the journalist’s ear mysterious
words.

“Really?” questioned Ben-Zayb, slapping his hand on his pocket and
paling visibly.

“Wherever he may be found—” The sentence was completed with an
expressive pantomime. Don Custodio raised both arms to the height of
his face, with the right more bent than the left, turned the palms of
his hands toward the floor, closed one eye, and made two movements in
advance. “Ssh! Ssh!” he hissed.

“And the diamonds?” inquired Ben-Zayb.

“If they find him—” He went through another pantomime with the fingers
of his right hand, spreading them out and clenching them together like
the closing of a fan, clutching out with them somewhat in the manner of
the wings of a wind-mill sweeping imaginary objects toward itself with
practised skill. Ben-Zayb responded with another pantomime, opening his
eyes wide, arching his eyebrows and sucking in his breath eagerly as
though nutritious air had just been discovered.

“Sssh!”



CHAPTER XXXVII

THE MYSTERY

                                                           Todo se sabe


Notwithstanding so many precautions, rumors reached the public, even
though quite changed and mutilated. On the following night they were
the theme of comment in the house of Orenda, a rich jewel merchant in
the industrious district of Santa Cruz, and the numerous friends of the
family gave attention to nothing else. They were not indulging in
cards, or playing the piano, while little Tinay, the youngest of the
girls, became bored playing chongka by herself, without being able to
understand the interest awakened by assaults, conspiracies, and sacks
of powder, when there were in the seven holes so many beautiful cowries
that seemed to be winking at her in unison and smiled with their tiny
mouths half-opened, begging to be carried up to the home. Even Isagani,
who, when he came, always used to play with her and allow himself to be
beautifully cheated, did not come at her call, for Isagani was gloomily
and silently listening to something Chichoy the silversmith was
relating. Momoy, the betrothed of Sensia, the eldest of the daughters—a
pretty and vivacious girl, rather given to joking—had left the window
where he was accustomed to spend his evenings in amorous discourse, and
this action seemed to be very annoying to the lory whose cage hung from
the eaves there, the lory endeared to the house from its ability to
greet everybody in the morning with marvelous phrases of love. Capitana
Loleng, the energetic and intelligent Capitana Loleng, had her
account-book open before her, but she neither read nor wrote in it, nor
was her attention fixed on the trays of loose pearls, nor on the
diamonds—she had completely forgotten herself and was all ears. Her
husband himself, the great Capitan Toringoy,—a transformation of the
name Domingo,—the happiest man in the district, without other
occupation than to dress well, eat, loaf, and gossip, while his whole
family worked and toiled, had not gone to join his coterie, but was
listening between fear and emotion to the hair-raising news of the lank
Chichoy.

Nor was reason for all this lacking. Chichoy had gone to deliver some
work for Don Timoteo Pelaez, a pair of earrings for the bride, at the
very time when they were tearing down the kiosk that on the previous
night had served as a dining-room for the foremost officials. Here
Chichoy turned pale and his hair stood on end.

“Nakú!” he exclaimed, “sacks and sacks of powder, sacks of powder under
the floor, in the roof, under the table, under the chairs, everywhere!
It’s lucky none of the workmen were smoking.”

“Who put those sacks of powder there?” asked Capitana Loleng, who was
brave and did not turn pale, as did the enamored Momoy. But Momoy had
attended the wedding, so his posthumous emotion can be appreciated: he
had been near the kiosk.

“That’s what no one can explain,” replied Chichoy. “Who would have any
interest in breaking up the fiesta? There couldn’t have been more than
one, as the celebrated lawyer Señor Pasta who was there on a visit
declared—either an enemy of Don Timoteo’s or a rival of Juanito’s.”

The Orenda girls turned instinctively toward Isagani, who smiled
silently.

“Hide yourself,” Capitana Loleng advised him. “They may accuse you.
Hide!”

Again Isagani smiled but said nothing.

“Don Timoteo,” continued Chichoy, “did not know to whom to attribute
the deed. He himself superintended the work, he and his friend Simoun,
and nobody else. The house was thrown into an uproar, the lieutenant of
the guard came, and after enjoining secrecy upon everybody, they sent
me away. But—”

“But—but—” stammered the trembling Momoy.

“Nakú!” ejaculated Sensia, gazing at her fiancé and trembling
sympathetically to remember that he had been at the fiesta. “This young
man—If the house had blown up—” She stared at her sweetheart
passionately and admired his courage.

“If it had blown up—”

“No one in the whole of Calle Anloague would have been left alive,”
concluded Capitan Toringoy, feigning valor and indifference in the
presence of his family.

“I left in consternation,” resumed Chichoy, “thinking about how, if a
mere spark, a cigarette had fallen, if a lamp had been overturned, at
the present moment we should have neither a General, nor an Archbishop,
nor any one, not even a government clerk! All who were at the fiesta
last night—annihilated!”

“Vírgen Santísima! This young man—”

“’Susmariosep!” exclaimed Capitana Loleng. “All our debtors were there,
’Susmariosep! And we have a house near there! Who could it have been?”

“Now you may know about it,” added Chichoy in a whisper, “but you must
keep it a secret. This afternoon I met a friend, a clerk in an office,
and in talking about the affair, he gave me the clue to the mystery—he
had it from some government employees. Who do you suppose put the sacks
of powder there?”

Many shrugged their shoulders, while Capitan Toringoy merely looked
askance at Isagani.

“The friars?”

“Quiroga the Chinaman?”

“Some student?”

“Makaraig?”

Capitan Toringoy coughed and glanced at Isagani, while Chichoy shook
his head and smiled.

“The jeweler Simoun.”

“Simoun!!”

The profound silence of amazement followed these words. Simoun, the
evil genius of the Captain-General, the rich trader to whose house they
had gone to buy unset gems, Simoun, who had received the Orenda girls
with great courtesy and had paid them fine compliments! For the very
reason that the story seemed absurd it was believed. “Credo quia
absurdum,” said St. Augustine.

“But wasn’t Simoun at the fiesta last night?” asked Sensia.

“Yes,” said Momoy. “But now I remember! He left the house just as we
were sitting down to the dinner. He went to get his wedding-gift.”

“But wasn’t he a friend of the General’s? Wasn’t he a partner of Don
Timoteo’s?”

“Yes, he made himself a partner in order to strike the blow and kill
all the Spaniards.”

“Aha!” cried Sensia. “Now I understand!”

“What?”

“You didn’t want to believe Aunt Tentay. Simoun is the devil and he has
bought up the souls of all the Spaniards. Aunt Tentay said so!”

Capitana Loleng crossed herself and looked uneasily toward the jewels,
fearing to see them turn into live coals, while Capitan Toringoy took
off the ring which had come from Simoun.

“Simoun has disappeared without leaving any traces,” added Chichoy.
“The Civil Guard is searching for him.”

“Yes,” observed Sensia, crossing herself, “searching for the devil.”

Now many things were explained: Simoun’s fabulous wealth and the
peculiar smell in his house, the smell of sulphur. Binday, another of
the daughters, a frank and lovely girl, remembered having seen blue
flames in the jeweler’s house one afternoon when she and her mother had
gone there to buy jewels. Isagani listened attentively, but said
nothing.

“So, last night—” ventured Momoy.

“Last night?” echoed Sensia, between curiosity and fear.

Momoy hesitated, but the face Sensia put on banished his fear. “Last
night, while we were eating, there was a disturbance, the light in the
General’s dining-room went out. They say that some unknown person stole
the lamp that was presented by Simoun.”

“A thief? One of the Black Hand?”

Isagani arose to walk back and forth.

“Didn’t they catch him?”

“He jumped into the river before anybody recognized him. Some say he
was a Spaniard, some a Chinaman, and others an Indian.”

“It’s believed that with the lamp,” added Chichoy, “he was going to set
fire to the house, then the powder—”

Momoy again shuddered but noticing that Sensia was watching him tried
to control himself. “What a pity!” he exclaimed with an effort. “How
wickedly the thief acted. Everybody would have been killed.”

Sensia stared at him in fright, the women crossed themselves, while
Capitan Toringoy, who was afraid of politics, made a move to go away.

Momoy turned to Isagani, who observed with an enigmatic smile: “It’s
always wicked to take what doesn’t belong to you. If that thief had
known what it was all about and had been able to reflect, surely he
wouldn’t have done as he did.”

Then, after a pause, he added, “For nothing in the world would I want
to be in his place!”

So they continued their comments and conjectures until an hour later,
when Isagani bade the family farewell, to return forever to his uncle’s
side.



CHAPTER XXXVIII

FATALITY


Matanglawin was the terror of Luzon. His band had as lief appear in one
province where it was least expected as make a descent upon another
that was preparing to resist it. It burned a sugar-mill in Batangas and
destroyed the crops, on the following day it murdered the Justice of
the Peace of Tiani, and on the next took possession of the town of
Cavite, carrying off the arms from the town hall. The central
provinces, from Tayabas to Pangasinan, suffered from his depredations,
and his bloody name extended from Albay in the south to Kagayan in the
north. The towns, disarmed through mistrust on the part of a weak
government, fell easy prey into his hands—at his approach the fields
were abandoned by the farmers, the herds were scattered, while a trail
of blood and fire marked his passage. Matanglawin laughed at the severe
measures ordered by the government against the tulisanes, since from
them only the people in the outlying villages suffered, being captured
and maltreated if they resisted the band, and if they made peace with
it being flogged and deported by the government, provided they
completed the journey and did not meet with a fatal accident on the
way. Thanks to these terrible alternatives many of the country folk
decided to enlist under his command.

As a result of this reign of terror, trade among the towns, already
languishing, died out completely. The rich dared not travel, and the
poor feared to be arrested by the Civil Guard, which, being under
obligation to pursue the tulisanes, often seized the first person
encountered and subjected him to unspeakable tortures. In its
impotence, the government put on a show of energy toward the persons
whom it suspected, in order that by force of cruelty the people should
not realize its weakness—the fear that prompted such measures.

A string of these hapless suspects, some six or seven, with their arms
tied behind them, bound together like a bunch of human meat, was one
afternoon marching through the excessive heat along a road that skirted
a mountain, escorted by ten or twelve guards armed with rifles. Their
bayonets gleamed in the sun, the barrels of their rifles became hot,
and even the sage-leaves in their helmets scarcely served to temper the
effect of the deadly May sun.

Deprived of the use of their arms and pressed close against one another
to save rope, the prisoners moved along almost uncovered and unshod, he
being the best off who had a handkerchief twisted around his head.
Panting, suffering, covered with dust which perspiration converted into
mud, they felt their brains melting, they saw lights dancing before
them, red spots floating in the air. Exhaustion and dejection were
pictured in their faces, desperation, wrath, something indescribable,
the look of one who dies cursing, of a man who is weary of life, who
hates himself, who blasphemes against God. The strongest lowered their
heads to rub their faces against the dusky backs of those in front of
them and thus wipe away the sweat that was blinding them. Many were
limping, but if any one of them happened to fall and thus delay the
march he would hear a curse as a soldier ran up brandishing a branch
torn from a tree and forced him to rise by striking about in all
directions. The string then started to run, dragging, rolling in the
dust, the fallen one, who howled and begged to be killed; but perchance
he succeeded in getting on his feet and then went along crying like a
child and cursing the hour he was born.

The human cluster halted at times while the guards drank, and then the
prisoners continued on their way with parched mouths, darkened brains,
and hearts full of curses. Thirst was for these wretches the least of
their troubles.

“Move on, you sons of ——!” cried a soldier, again refreshed, hurling
the insult common among the lower classes of Filipinos.

The branch whistled and fell on any shoulder whatsoever, the nearest
one, or at times upon a face to leave a welt at first white, then red,
and later dirty with the dust of the road.

“Move on, you cowards!” at times a voice yelled in Spanish, deepening
its tone.

“Cowards!” repeated the mountain echoes.

Then the cowards quickened their pace under a sky of red-hot iron, over
a burning road, lashed by the knotty branch which was worn into shreds
on their livid skins. A Siberian winter would perhaps be tenderer than
the May sun of the Philippines.

Yet, among the soldiers there was one who looked with disapproving eyes
upon so much wanton cruelty, as he marched along silently with his
brows knit in disgust. At length, seeing that the guard, not satisfied
with the branch, was kicking the prisoners that fell, he could no
longer restrain himself but cried out impatiently, “Here, Mautang, let
them alone!”

Mautang turned toward him in surprise. “What’s it to you, Carolino?” he
asked.

“To me, nothing, but it hurts me,” replied Carolino. “They’re men like
ourselves.”

“It’s plain that you’re new to the business!” retorted Mautang with a
compassionate smile. “How did you treat the prisoners in the war?”

“With more consideration, surely!” answered Carolino.

Mautang remained silent for a moment and then, apparently having
discovered the reason, calmly rejoined, “Ah, it’s because they are
enemies and fight us, while these—these are our own countrymen.”

Then drawing nearer to Carolino he whispered, “How stupid you are!
They’re treated so in order that they may attempt to resist or to
escape, and then—bang!”

Carolino made no reply.

One of the prisoners then begged that they let him stop for a moment.

“This is a dangerous place,” answered the corporal, gazing uneasily
toward the mountain. “Move on!”

“Move on!” echoed Mautang and his lash whistled.

The prisoner twisted himself around to stare at him with reproachful
eyes. “You are more cruel than the Spaniard himself,” he said.

Mautang replied with more blows, when suddenly a bullet whistled,
followed by a loud report. Mautang dropped his rifle, uttered an oath,
and clutching at his breast with both hands fell spinning into a heap.
The prisoner saw him writhing in the dust with blood spurting from his
mouth.

“Halt!” called the corporal, suddenly turning pale.

The soldiers stopped and stared about them. A wisp of smoke rose from a
thicket on the height above. Another bullet sang to its accompanying
report and the corporal, wounded in the thigh, doubled over vomiting
curses. The column was attacked by men hidden among the rocks above.

Sullen with rage the corporal motioned toward the string of prisoners
and laconically ordered, “Fire!”

The wretches fell upon their knees, filled with consternation. As they
could not lift their hands, they begged for mercy by kissing the dust
or bowing their heads—one talked of his children, another of his mother
who would be left unprotected, one promised money, another called upon
God—but the muzzles were quickly lowered and a hideous volley silenced
them all.

Then began the sharpshooting against those who were behind the rocks
above, over which a light cloud of smoke began to hover. To judge from
the scarcity of their shots, the invisible enemies could not have more
than three rifles. As they advanced firing, the guards sought cover
behind tree-trunks or crouched down as they attempted to scale the
height. Splintered rocks leaped up, broken twigs fell from trees,
patches of earth were torn up, and the first guard who attempted the
ascent rolled back with a bullet through his shoulder.

The hidden enemy had the advantage of position, but the valiant guards,
who did not know how to flee, were on the point of retiring, for they
had paused, unwilling to advance; that fight against the invisible
unnerved them. Smoke and rocks alone could be seen—not a voice was
heard, not a shadow appeared; they seemed to be fighting with the
mountain.

“Shoot, Carolino! What are you aiming at?” called the corporal.

At that instant a man appeared upon a rock, making signs with his
rifle.

“Shoot him!” ordered the corporal with a foul oath.

Three guards obeyed the order, but the man continued standing there,
calling out at the top of his voice something unintelligible.

Carolino paused, thinking that he recognized something familiar about
that figure, which stood out plainly in the sunlight. But the corporal
threatened to tie him up if he did not fire, so Carolino took aim and
the report of his rifle was heard. The man on the rock spun around and
disappeared with a cry that left Carolino horror-stricken.

Then followed a rustling in the bushes, indicating that those within
were scattering in all directions, so the soldiers boldly advanced, now
that there was no more resistance. Another man appeared upon the rock,
waving a spear, and they fired at him. He sank down slowly, catching at
the branch of a tree, but with another volley fell face downwards on
the rock.

The guards climbed on nimbly, with bayonets fixed ready for a
hand-to-hand fight. Carolino alone moved forward reluctantly, with a
wandering, gloomy look, the cry of the man struck by his bullet still
ringing in his ears. The first to reach the spot found an old man
dying, stretched out on the rock. He plunged his bayonet into the body,
but the old man did not even wink, his eyes being fixed on Carolino
with an indescribable gaze, while with his bony hand he pointed to
something behind the rock.

The soldiers turned to see Caroline frightfully pale, his mouth hanging
open, with a look in which glimmered the last spark of reason, for
Carolino, who was no other than Tano, Cabesang Tales’ son, and who had
just returned from the Carolines, recognized in the dying man his
grandfather, Tandang Selo. No longer able to speak, the old man’s dying
eyes uttered a whole poem of grief—and then a corpse, he still
continued to point to something behind the rock.



CHAPTER XXXIX

CONCLUSION


In his solitary retreat on the shore of the sea, whose mobile surface
was visible through the open, windows, extending outward until it
mingled with the horizon, Padre Florentino was relieving the monotony
by playing on his harmonium sad and melancholy tunes, to which the
sonorous roar of the surf and the sighing of the treetops of the
neighboring wood served as accompaniments. Notes long, full, mournful
as a prayer, yet still vigorous, escaped from the old instrument. Padre
Florentino, who was an accomplished musician, was improvising, and, as
he was alone, gave free rein to the sadness in his heart.

For the truth was that the old man was very sad. His good friend, Don
Tiburcio de Espadaña, had just left him, fleeing from the persecution
of his wife. That morning he had received a note from the lieutenant of
the Civil Guard, which ran thus:


    MY DEAR CHAPLAIN,—I have just received from the commandant a
    telegram that says, “Spaniard hidden house Padre Florentino capture
    forward alive dead.” As the telegram is quite explicit, warn your
    friend not to be there when I come to arrest him at eight tonight.

    Affectionately,

    PEREZ

    Burn this note.


“T-that V-victorina!” Don Tiburcio had stammered. “S-she’s c-capable of
having me s-shot!”

Padre Florentino was unable to reassure him. Vainly he pointed out to
him that the word cojera should have read cogerá, [77] and that the
hidden Spaniard could not be Don  Tiburcio, but the jeweler Simoun, who
two days before had arrived, wounded and a fugitive, begging for
shelter. But Don Tiburcio would not be convinced—cojera was his own
lameness, his personal description, and it was an intrigue of
Victorina’s to get him back alive or dead, as Isagani had written from
Manila. So the poor Ulysses had left the priest’s house to conceal
himself in the hut of a woodcutter.

No doubt was entertained by Padre Florentino that the Spaniard wanted
was the jeweler Simoun, who had arrived mysteriously, himself carrying
the jewel-chest, bleeding, morose, and exhausted. With the free and
cordial Filipino hospitality, the priest had taken him in, without
asking indiscreet questions, and as news of the events in Manila had
not yet reached his ears he was unable to understand the situation
clearly. The only conjecture that occurred to him was that the General,
the jeweler’s friend and protector, being gone, probably his enemies,
the victims of wrong and abuse, were now rising and calling for
vengeance, and that the acting Governor was pursuing him to make him
disgorge the wealth he had accumulated—hence his flight. But whence
came his wounds? Had he tried to commit suicide? Were they the result
of personal revenge? Or were they merely caused by an accident, as
Simoun claimed? Had they been received in escaping from the force that
was pursuing him?

This last conjecture was the one that seemed to have the greatest
appearance of probability, being further strengthened by the telegram
received and Simoun’s decided unwillingness from the start to be
treated by the doctor from the capital. The jeweler submitted only to
the ministrations of Don Tiburcio, and even to them with marked
distrust. In this situation Padre Florentino was asking himself what
line of conduct he should pursue when the Civil Guard came to arrest
Simoun. His condition would not permit his removal, much less a long
journey—but the telegram said alive or dead.

Padre Florentine ceased playing and approached the window to gaze out
at the sea, whose desolate surface was without a ship, without a
sail—it gave him no suggestion. A solitary islet outlined in the
distance spoke only of solitude and made the space more lonely.
Infinity is at times despairingly mute.

The old man was trying to analyze the sad and ironical smile with which
Simoun had received the news that he was to be arrested. What did that
smile mean? And that other smile, still sadder and more ironical, with
which he received the news that they would not come before eight at
night? What did all this mystery signify? Why did Simoun refuse to
hide? There came into his mind the celebrated saying of St. John
Chrysostom when he was defending the eunuch Eutropius: “Never was a
better time than this to say—Vanity of vanities and all is vanity!”

Yes, that Simoun, so rich, so powerful, so feared a week ago, and now
more unfortunate than Eutropius, was seeking refuge, not at the altars
of a church, but in the miserable house of a poor native priest, hidden
in the forest, on the solitary seashore! Vanity of vanities and all is
vanity! That man would within a few hours be a prisoner, dragged from
the bed where he lay, without respect for his condition, without
consideration for his wounds—dead or alive his enemies demanded him!
How could he save him? Where could he find the moving accents of the
bishop of Constantinople? What weight would his weak words have, the
words of a native priest, whose own humiliation this same Simoun had in
his better days seemed to applaud and encourage?

But Padre Florentine no longer recalled the indifferent reception that
two months before the jeweler had accorded to him when he had tried to
interest him in favor of Isagani, then a prisoner on account of his
imprudent chivalry; he forgot the activity Simoun had displayed in
urging Paulita’s marriage, which had plunged Isagani into the fearful
misanthropy that was worrying his uncle. He forgot all these things and
thought only of the sick man’s plight and his own obligations as a
host, until his senses reeled. Where must he hide him to avoid his
falling into the clutches of the authorities? But the person chiefly
concerned was not worrying, he was smiling.

While he was pondering over these things, the old man was approached by
a servant who said that the sick man wished to speak with him, so he
went into the next room, a clean and well-ventilated apartment with a
floor of wide boards smoothed and polished, and simply furnished with
big, heavy armchairs of ancient design, without varnish or paint. At
one end there was a large kamagon bed with its four posts to support
the canopy, and beside it a table covered with bottles, lint, and
bandages. A praying-desk at the feet of a Christ and a scanty library
led to the suspicion that it was the priest’s own bedroom, given up to
his guest according to the Filipino custom of offering to the stranger
the best table, the best room, and the best bed in the house. Upon
seeing the windows opened wide to admit freely the healthful sea-breeze
and the echoes of its eternal lament, no one in the Philippines would
have said that a sick person was to be found there, since it is the
custom to close all the windows and stop up all the cracks just as soon
as any one catches a cold or gets an insignificant headache.

Padre Florentine looked toward the bed and was astonished to see that
the sick man’s face had lost its tranquil and ironical expression.
Hidden grief seemed to knit his brows, anxiety was depicted in his
looks, his lips were curled in a smile of pain.

“Are you suffering, Señor Simoun?” asked the priest solicitously, going
to his side.

“Some! But in a little while I shall cease to suffer,” he replied with
a shake of his head.

Padre Florentine clasped his hands in fright, suspecting that he
understood the terrible truth. “My God, what have you done? What have
you taken?” He reached toward the bottles.

“It’s useless now! There’s no remedy at all!” answered Simoun with a
pained smile. “What did you expect me to do? Before the clock strikes
eight—alive or dead—dead, yes, but alive, no!”

“My God, what have you done?”

“Be calm!” urged the sick man with a wave of his hand. “What’s done is
done. I must not fall into anybody’s hands—my secret would be torn from
me. Don’t get excited, don’t lose your head, it’s useless! Listen—the
night is coming on and there’s no time to be lost. I must tell you my
secret, and intrust to you my last request, I must lay my life open
before you. At the supreme moment I want to lighten myself of a load, I
want to clear up a doubt of mine. You who believe so firmly in God—I
want you to tell me if there is a God!”

“But an antidote, Señor Simoun! I have ether, chloroform—”

The priest began to search for a flask, until Simoun cried impatiently,
“Useless, it’s useless! Don’t waste time! I’ll go away with my secret!”

The bewildered priest fell down at his desk and prayed at the feet of
the Christ, hiding his face in his hands. Then he arose serious and
grave, as if he had received from his God all the force, all the
dignity, all the authority of the Judge of consciences. Moving a chair
to the head of the bed he prepared to listen.

At the first words Simoun murmured, when he told his real name, the old
priest started back and gazed at him in terror, whereat the sick man
smiled bitterly. Taken by surprise, the priest was not master of
himself, but he soon recovered, and covering his face with a
handkerchief again bent over to listen.

Simoun related his sorrowful story: how, thirteen years before, he had
returned from Europe filled with hopes and smiling illusions, having
come back to marry a girl whom he loved, disposed to do good and
forgive all who had wronged him, just so they would let him live in
peace. But it was not so. A mysterious hand involved him in the
confusion of an uprising planned by his enemies. Name, fortune, love,
future, liberty, all were lost, and he escaped only through the heroism
of a friend. Then he swore vengeance. With the wealth of his family,
which had been buried in a wood, he had fled, had gone to foreign lands
and engaged in trade. He took part in the war in Cuba, aiding first one
side and then another, but always profiting. There he made the
acquaintance of the General, then a major, whose good-will he won first
by loans of money, and afterwards he made a friend of him by the
knowledge of criminal secrets. With his money he had been able to
secure the General’s appointment and, once in the Philippines, he had
used him as a blind tool and incited him to all kinds of injustice,
availing himself of his insatiable lust for gold.

The confession was long and tedious, but during the whole of it the
confessor made no further sign of surprise and rarely interrupted the
sick man. It was night when Padre Florentino, wiping the perspiration
from his face, arose and began to meditate. Mysterious darkness flooded
the room, so that the moonbeams entering through the window filled it
with vague lights and vaporous reflections.

Into the midst of the silence the priest’s voice broke sad and
deliberate, but consoling: “God will forgive you, Señor—Simoun,” he
said. “He knows that we are fallible, He has seen that you have
suffered, and in ordaining that the chastisement for your faults should
come as death from the very ones you have instigated to crime, we can
see His infinite mercy. He has frustrated your plans one by one, the
best conceived, first by the death of Maria Clara, then by a lack of
preparation, then in some mysterious way. Let us bow to His will and
render Him thanks!”

“According to you, then,” feebly responded the sick man, “His will is
that these islands—”

“Should continue in the condition in which they suffer?” finished the
priest, seeing that the other hesitated. “I don’t know, sir, I can’t
read the thought of the Inscrutable. I know that He has not abandoned
those peoples who in their supreme moments have trusted in Him and made
Him the Judge of their cause, I know that His arm has never failed
when, justice long trampled upon and every recourse gone, the oppressed
have taken up the sword to fight for home and wife and children, for
their inalienable rights, which, as the German poet says, shine ever
there above, unextinguished and inextinguishable, like the eternal
stars themselves. No, God is justice, He cannot abandon His cause, the
cause of liberty, without which no justice is possible.”

“Why then has He denied me His aid?” asked the sick man in a voice
charged with bitter complaint.

“Because you chose means that He could not sanction,” was the severe
reply. “The glory of saving a country is not for him who has
contributed to its ruin. You have believed that what crime and iniquity
have defiled and deformed, another crime and another iniquity can
purify and redeem. Wrong! Hate never produces anything but monsters and
crime criminals! Love alone realizes wonderful works, virtue alone can
save! No, if our country has ever to be free, it will not be through
vice and crime, it will not be so by corrupting its sons, deceiving
some and bribing others, no! Redemption presupposes virtue, virtue
sacrifice, and sacrifice love!”

“Well, I accept your explanation,” rejoined the sick man, after a
pause. “I have been mistaken, but, because I have been mistaken, will
that God deny liberty to a people and yet save many who are much worse
criminals than I am? What is my mistake compared to the crimes of our
rulers? Why has that God to give more heed to my iniquity than to the
cries of so many innocents? Why has He not stricken me down and then
made the people triumph? Why does He let so many worthy and just ones
suffer and look complacently upon their tortures?”

“The just and the worthy must suffer in order that their ideas may be
known and extended! You must shake or shatter the vase to spread its
perfume, you must smite the rock to get the spark! There is something
providential in the persecutions of tyrants, Señor Simoun!”

“I knew it,” murmured the sick man, “and therefore I encouraged the
tyranny.”

“Yes, my friend, but more corrupt influences than anything else were
spread. You fostered the social rottenness without sowing an idea. From
this fermentation of vices loathing alone could spring, and if anything
were born overnight it would be at best a mushroom, for mushrooms only
can spring spontaneously from filth. True it is that the vices of the
government are fatal to it, they cause its death, but they kill also
the society in whose bosom they are developed. An immoral government
presupposes a demoralized people, a conscienceless administration,
greedy and servile citizens in the settled parts, outlaws and brigands
in the mountains. Like master, like slave! Like government, like
country!”

A brief pause ensued, broken at length by the sick man’s voice. “Then,
what can be done?”

“Suffer and work!”

“Suffer—work!” echoed the sick man bitterly. “Ah, it’s easy to say
that, when you are not suffering, when the work is rewarded. If your
God demands such great sacrifices from man, man who can scarcely count
upon the present and doubts the future, if you had seen what I have,
the miserable, the wretched, suffering unspeakable tortures for crimes
they have not committed, murdered to cover up the faults and incapacity
of others, poor fathers of families torn from their homes to work to no
purpose upon highways that are destroyed each day and seem only to
serve for sinking families into want. Ah, to suffer, to work, is the
will of God! Convince them that their murder is their salvation, that
their work is the prosperity of the home! To suffer, to work! What God
is that?”

“A very just God, Señor Simoun,” replied the priest. “A God who
chastises our lack of faith, our vices, the little esteem in which we
hold dignity and the civic virtues. We tolerate vice, we make ourselves
its accomplices, at times we applaud it, and it is just, very just that
we suffer the consequences, that our children suffer them. It is the
God of liberty, Señor Simoun, who obliges us to love it, by making the
yoke heavy for us—a God of mercy, of equity, who while He chastises us,
betters us and only grants prosperity to him who has merited it through
his efforts. The school of suffering tempers, the arena of combat
strengthens the soul.

“I do not mean to say that our liberty will be secured at the sword’s
point, for the sword plays but little part in modern affairs, but that
we must secure it by making ourselves worthy of it, by exalting the
intelligence and the dignity of the individual, by loving justice,
right, and greatness, even to the extent of dying for them,—and when a
people reaches that height God will provide a weapon, the idols will be
shattered, the tyranny will crumble like a house of cards and liberty
will shine out like the first dawn.

“Our ills we owe to ourselves alone, so let us blame no one. If Spain
should see that we were less complaisant with tyranny and more disposed
to struggle and suffer for our rights, Spain would be the first to
grant us liberty, because when the fruit of the womb reaches maturity
woe unto the mother who would stifle it! So, while the Filipino people
has not sufficient energy to proclaim, with head erect and bosom bared,
its rights to social life, and to guarantee it with its sacrifices,
with its own blood; while we see our countrymen in private life ashamed
within themselves, hear the voice of conscience roar in rebellion and
protest, yet in public life keep silence or even echo the words of him
who abuses them in order to mock the abused; while we see them wrap
themselves up in their egotism and with a forced smile praise the most
iniquitous actions, begging with their eyes a portion of the booty—why
grant them liberty? With Spain or without Spain they would always be
the same, and perhaps worse! Why independence, if the slaves of today
will be the tyrants of tomorrow? And that they will be such is not to
be doubted, for he who submits to tyranny loves it.

“Señor Simoun, when our people is unprepared, when it enters the fight
through fraud and force, without a clear understanding of what it is
doing, the wisest attempts will fail, and better that they do fail,
since why commit the wife to the husband if he does not sufficiently
love her, if he is not ready to die for her?”

Padre Florentino felt the sick man catch and press his hand, so he
became silent, hoping that the other might speak, but he merely felt a
stronger pressure of the hand, heard a sigh, and then profound silence
reigned in the room. Only the sea, whose waves were rippled by the
night breeze, as though awaking from the heat of the day, sent its
hoarse roar, its eternal chant, as it rolled against the jagged rocks.
The moon, now free from the sun’s rivalry, peacefully commanded the
sky, and the trees of the forest bent down toward one another, telling
their ancient legends in mysterious murmurs borne on the wings of the
wind.

The sick man said nothing, so Padre Florentino, deeply thoughtful,
murmured: “Where are the youth who will consecrate their golden hours,
their illusions, and their enthusiasm to the welfare of their native
land? Where are the youth who will generously pour out their blood to
wash away so much shame, so much crime, so much abomination? Pure and
spotless must the victim be that the sacrifice may be acceptable! Where
are you, youth, who will embody in yourselves the vigor of life that
has left our veins, the purity of ideas that has been contaminated in
our brains, the fire of enthusiasm that has been quenched in our
hearts? We await you, O youth! Come, for we await you!”

Feeling his eyes moisten he withdrew his hand from that of the sick
man, arose, and went to the window to gaze out upon the wide surface of
the sea. He was drawn from his meditation by gentle raps at the door.
It was the servant asking if he should bring a light.

When the priest returned to the sick man and looked at him in the light
of the lamp, motionless, his eyes closed, the hand that had pressed his
lying open and extended along the edge of the bed, he thought for a
moment that he was sleeping, but noticing that he was not breathing
touched him gently, and then realized that he was dead. His body had
already commenced to turn cold. The priest fell upon his knees and
prayed.

When he arose and contemplated the corpse, in whose features were
depicted the deepest grief, the tragedy of a whole wasted life which he
was carrying over there beyond death, the old man shuddered and
murmured, “God have mercy on those who turned him from the straight
path!”

While the servants summoned by him fell upon their knees and prayed for
the dead man, curious and bewildered as they gazed toward the bed,
reciting requiem after requiem, Padre Florentino took from a cabinet
the celebrated steel chest that contained Simoun’s fabulous wealth. He
hesitated for a moment, then resolutely descended the stairs and made
his way to the cliff where Isagani was accustomed to sit and gaze into
the depths of the sea.

Padre Florentino looked down at his feet. There below he saw the dark
billows of the Pacific beating into the hollows of the cliff, producing
sonorous thunder, at the same time that, smitten by the moonbeams, the
waves and foam glittered like sparks of fire, like handfuls of diamonds
hurled into the air by some jinnee of the abyss. He gazed about him. He
was alone. The solitary coast was lost in the distance amid the dim
cloud that the moonbeams played through, until it mingled with the
horizon. The forest murmured unintelligible sounds.

Then the old man, with an effort of his herculean arms, hurled the
chest into space, throwing it toward the sea. It whirled over and over
several times and descended rapidly in a slight curve, reflecting the
moonlight on its polished surface. The old man saw the drops of water
fly and heard a loud splash as the abyss closed over and swallowed up
the treasure. He waited for a few moments to see if the depths would
restore anything, but the wave rolled on as mysteriously as before,
without adding a fold to its rippling surface, as though into the
immensity of the sea a pebble only had been dropped.

“May Nature guard you in her deep abysses among the pearls and corals
of her eternal seas,” then said the priest, solemnly extending his
hands. “When for some holy and sublime purpose man may need you, God
will in his wisdom draw you from the bosom of the waves. Meanwhile,
there you will not work woe, you will not distort justice, you will not
foment avarice!”



GLOSSARY


abá: A Tagalog exclamation of wonder, surprise, etc., often used to
introduce or emphasize a contradictory statement.

alcalde: Governor of a province or district, with both executive and
judicial authority.

Ayuntamiento: A city corporation or council, and by extension the
building in which it has its offices; specifically, in Manila, the
capitol.

balete: The Philippine banyan, a tree sacred in Malay folk-lore.

banka: A dugout canoe with bamboo supports or outriggers.

batalan: The platform of split bamboo attached to a nipa house.

batikúlin: A variety of easily-turned wood, used in carving.

bibinka: A sweetmeat made of sugar or molasses and rice-flour, commonly
sold in the small shops.

buyera: A woman who prepares and sells the buyo.

buyo: The masticatory prepared by wrapping a piece of areca-nut with a
little shell-lime in a betel-leaf—the pan of British India.

cabesang: Title of a cabeza de barangay; given by courtesy to his wife
also.

cabeza de barangay: Headman and tax-collector for a group of about
fifty families, for whose “tribute” he was personally responsible.

calesa: A two-wheeled chaise with folding top.

calle: Street (Spanish).

camisa: 1. A loose, collarless shirt of transparent material worn by
men outside the trousers. 2. A thin, transparent waist with flowing
sleeves, worn by women.

capitan: “Captain,” a title used in addressing or referring to a
gobernadorcillo, or a former occupant of that office.

carambas: A Spanish exclamation denoting surprise or displeasure.

carbineer: Internal-revenue guard.

carromata: A small two-wheeled vehicle with a fixed top.

casco: A flat-bottomed freight barge.

cayman: The Philippine crocodile.

cedula: Certificate of registration and receipt for poll-tax.

chongka: A child’s game played with pebbles or cowry-shells.

cigarrera: A woman working in a cigar or cigarette factory.

Civil Guard: Internal quasi-military police force of Spanish officers
and native soldiers.

cochero: Carriage driver, coachman.

cuarto: A copper coin, one hundred and sixty of which were equal in
value to a silver peso.

filibuster: A native of the Philippines who was accused of advocating
their separation from Spain.

filibusterism: See filibuster.

gobernadorcillo: “Petty governor,” the principal municipal
official—also, in Manila, the head of a commercial guild.

gumamela: The hibiscus, common as a garden shrub in the Philippines.

Indian: The Spanish designation for the Christianized Malay of the
Philippines was indio (Indian), a term used rather contemptuously, the
name Filipino being generally applied in a restricted sense to the
children of Spaniards born in the Islands.

kalan: The small, portable, open, clay fireplace commonly used in
cooking.

kalikut: A short section of bamboo for preparing the buyo; a primitive
betel-box.

kamagon: A tree of the ebony family, from which fine cabinet-wood is
obtained. Its fruit is the mabolo, or date-plum.

lanete: A variety of timber used in carving.

linintikan: A Tagalog exclamation of disgust or contempt—“thunder!”

Malacañang: The palace of the Captain-General: from the vernacular name
of the place where it stands, “fishermen’s resort.”

Malecon: A drive along the bay shore of Manila, opposite the Walled
City.

Mestizo: A person of mixed Filipino and Spanish blood; sometimes
applied also to a person of mixed Filipino and Chinese blood.

nakú: A Tagalog exclamation of surprise, wonder, etc.

narra: The Philippine mahogany.

nipa: Swamp palm, with the imbricated leaves of which the roofs and
sides of the common native houses are constructed.

novena: A devotion consisting of prayers recited for nine consecutive
days, asking for some special favor; also, a booklet of these prayers.

panguingui: A complicated card-game, generally for small stakes, played
with a monte deck.

panguinguera: A woman addicted to panguingui, this being chiefly a
feminine diversion in the Philippines.

pansit: A soup made of Chinese vermicelli.

pansitería: A shop where pansit is prepared and sold.

pañuelo: A starched neckerchief folded stiffly over the shoulders,
fastened in front and falling in a point behind: the most distinctive
portion of the customary dress of Filipino women.

peso: A silver coin, either the Spanish peso or the Mexican dollar,
about the size of an American dollar and of approximately half its
value.

petate: Sleeping-mat woven from palm leaves.

piña: Fine cloth made from pineapple-leaf fibers.

Provincial: The head of a religious order in the Philippines.

puñales: “Daggers!”

querida: A paramour, mistress: from the Spanish “beloved.”

real: One-eighth of a peso, twenty cuartos.

sala: The principal room in the more pretentious Philippine houses.

salakot: Wide hat of palm or bamboo, distinctively Filipino.

sampaguita: The Arabian jasmine: a small, white, very fragrant flower,
extensively cultivated, and worn in chaplets and rosaries by women and
girls—the typical Philippine flower.

sipa: A game played with a hollow ball of plaited bamboo or rattan, by
boys standing in a circle, who by kicking it with their heels endeavor
to keep it from striking the ground.

soltada: A bout between fighting-cocks.

’Susmariosep: A common exclamation: contraction of the Spanish, Jesús,
María, y José, the Holy Family.

tabi: The cry used by carriage drivers to warn pedestrians.

tabú: A utensil fashioned from half of a coconut shell.

tajú: A thick beverage prepared from bean-meal and syrup.

tampipi: A telescopic basket of woven palm, bamboo, or rattan.

Tandang: A title of respect for an old man: from the Tagalog term for
“old.”

tapis: A piece of dark cloth or lace, often richly worked or
embroidered, worn at the waist somewhat in the fashion of an apron; a
distinctive portion of the native women’s attire, especially among the
Tagalogs.

tatakut: The Tagalog term for “fear.”

teniente-mayor: “Senior lieutenant,” the senior member of the town
council and substitute for the gobernadorcillo.

tertiary sister: A member of a lay society affiliated with a regular
monastic order.

tienda: A shop or stall for the sale of merchandise.

tikbalang: An evil spirit, capable of assuming various forms, but said
to appear usually as a tall black man with disproportionately long
legs: the “bogey man” of Tagalog children.

tulisan: Outlaw, bandit. Under the old régime in the Philippines the
tulisanes were those who, on account of real or fancied grievances
against the authorities, or from fear of punishment for crime, or from
an instinctive desire to return to primitive simplicity, foreswore life
in the towns “under the bell,” and made their homes in the mountains or
other remote places. Gathered in small bands with such arms as they
could secure, they sustained themselves by highway robbery and the
levying of black-mail from the country folk.



NOTES


[1] The Spanish designation for the Christianized Malay of the
Philippines was indio (Indian), a term used rather contemptuously, the
name filipino being generally applied in a restricted sense to the
children of Spaniards born in the Islands.—Tr.

[2] Now generally known as the Mariquina.—Tr.

[3] This bridge, constructed in Lukban under the supervision of a
Franciscan friar, was jocularly referred to as the Puente de Capricho,
being apparently an ignorant blunder in the right direction, since it
was declared in an official report made by Spanish engineers in 1852 to
conform to no known principle of scientific construction, and yet
proved to be strong and durable.—Tr.

[4] Don Custodio’s gesture indicates money.—Tr.

[5] Duck eggs, that are allowed to advance well into the duckling
stage, then boiled and eaten. The señora is sneering at a custom among
some of her own people.—Tr.

[6] The Jesuit College in Manila, established in 1859.—Tr.

[7] Natives of Spain; to distinguish them from the Filipinos, i.e.,
descendants of Spaniards born in the Philippines. See Glossary:
“Indian.”—Tr.

[8] It was a common saying among the old Filipinos that the Spaniards
(white men) were fire (activity), while they themselves were water
(passivity).—Tr.

[9] The “liberal” demonstrations in Manila, and the mutiny in the
Cavite Arsenal, resulting in the garroting of the three native priests
to whom this work was dedicated: the first of a series of fatal
mistakes, culminating in the execution of the author, that cost Spain
the loyalty of the Filipinos.—Tr.

[10] Archbishop of Manila from 1767 to 1787.—Tr.

[11] “Between this island (Talim) and Halahala point extends a strait a
mile wide and a league long, which the Indians call ‘Kinabutasan,’ a
name that in their language means ‘place that was cleft open’; from
which it is inferred that in other times the island was joined to the
mainland and was separated from it by some severe earthquake, thus
leaving this strait: of this there is an old tradition among the
Indians.”—Fray Martinez de Zuñiga’s Estadismo (1803).

[12] The reference is to the novel Noli Me Tangere (The Social Cancer),
the author’s first work, of which, the present is in a way a
continuation.—Tr.

[13] This legend is still current among the Tagalogs. It circulates in
various forms, the commonest being that the king was so confined for
defying the lightning; and it takes no great stretch of the imagination
to fancy in this idea a reference to the firearms used by the Spanish
conquerors. Quite recently (January 1909), when the nearly extinct
volcano of Banahao shook itself and scattered a few tons of mud over
the surrounding landscape, the people thereabout recalled this old
legend, saying that it was their King Bernardo making another effort to
get that right foot loose.—Tr.

[14] The reference is to Noli Me Tangere, in which Sinang appears.

[15] The Dominican school of secondary instruction in Manila.—Tr.

[16] “The studies of secondary instruction given in Santo Tomas, in the
college of San Juan de Letran, and of San José, and in the private
schools, had the defects inherent in the plan of instruction which the
friars developed in the Philippines. It suited their plans that
scientific and literary knowledge should not become general nor very
extensive, for which reason they took but little interest in the study
of those subjects or in the quality of the instruction. Their
educational establishments were places of luxury for the children of
wealthy and well-to-do families rather than establishments in which to
perfect and develop the minds of the Filipino youth. It is true they
were careful to give them a religious education, tending to make them
respect the omnipotent power (sic) of the monastic corporations.

“The intellectual powers were made dormant by devoting a greater part
of the time to the study of Latin, to which they attached an
extraordinary importance, for the purpose of discouraging pupils from
studying the exact and experimental sciences and from gaining a
knowledge of true literary studies.

“The philosophic system explained was naturally the scholastic one,
with an exceedingly refined and subtile logic, and with deficient ideas
upon physics. By the study of Latin, and their philosophic systems,
they converted their pupils into automatic machines rather than into
practical men prepared to battle with life.”—Census of the Philippine
Islands (Washington, 1905), Volume III, pp. 601, 602.

[17] The nature of this booklet, in Tagalog, is made clear in several
passages. It was issued by the Franciscans, but proved too outspoken
for even Latin refinement, and was suppressed by the Order itself.—Tr.

[18] The rectory or parish house.

[19] Friends of the author, who suffered in Weyler’s expedition,
mentioned below.—Tr.

[20] The Dominican corporation, at whose instigation Captain-General
Valeriano Weyler sent a battery of artillery to Kalamba to destroy the
property of tenants who were contesting in the courts the friars’
titles to land there. The author’s family were the largest
sufferers.—Tr.

[21] A relative of the author, whose body was dragged from the tomb and
thrown to the dogs, on the pretext that he had died without receiving
final absolution.—Tr.

[22] Under the Spanish régime the government paid no attention to
education, the schools (!) being under the control of the religious
orders and the friar-curates of the towns.—Tr.

[23] The cockpits are farmed out annually by the local governments, the
terms “contract,” and “contractor,” having now been softened into
“license” and “licensee.”—Tr.

[24] The “Municipal School for Girls” was founded by the municipality
of Manila in 1864.... The institution was in charge of the Sisters of
Charity.—Census of the Philippine Islands, Vol. III, p. 615.

[25] Now known as Plaza España.—Tr.

[26] Patroness of the Dominican Order. She was formally and sumptuously
recrowned a queen of the skies in 1907.—Tr.

[27] A burlesque on an association of students known as the Milicia
Angelica, organized by the Dominicans to strengthen their hold on the
people. The name used is significant, “carbineers” being the local
revenue officers, notorious in their later days for graft and
abuse.—Tr.

[28] “Tinamáan ñg lintik!”—a Tagalog exclamation of anger,
disappointment, or dismay, regarded as a very strong expression,
equivalent to profanity. Literally, “May the lightning strike you!”—Tr.

[29] “To lie about the stars is a safe kind of lying.”—Tr.

[30] Throughout this chapter the professor uses the familiar tu in
addressing the students, thus giving his remarks a contemptuous
tone.—Tr.

[31] The professor speaks these words in vulgar dialect.

[32] To confuse the letters p and f in speaking Spanish was a common
error among uneducated Filipinos.—Tr.

[33] No cristianos, not Christians, i.e., savages.—Tr.

[34] The patron saint of Spain, St. James.—Tr.

[35] Houses of bamboo and nipa, such as form the homes of the masses of
the natives.—Tr.

[36] “In this paragraph Rizal alludes to an incident that had very
serious results. There was annually celebrated in Binondo a certain
religious festival, principally at the expense of the Chinese mestizos.
The latter finally petitioned that their gobernadorcillo be given the
presidency of it, and this was granted, thanks to the fact that the
parish priest (the Dominican, Fray José Hevia Campomanes) held to the
opinion that the presidency belonged to those who paid the most. The
Tagalogs protested, alleging their better right to it, as the genuine
sons of the country, not to mention the historical precedent, but the
friar, who was looking after his own interests, did not yield. General
Terrero (Governor, 1885–1888), at the advice of his liberal councilors,
finally had the parish priest removed and for the time being decided
the affair in favor of the Tagalogs. The matter reached the Colonial
Office (Ministerio de Ultramar) and the Minister was not even content
merely to settle it in the way the friars desired, but made amends to
Padre Hevia by appointing him a bishop.”—W. E. Retana, who was a
journalist in Manila at the time, in a note to this chapter.

Childish and ridiculous as this may appear now, it was far from being
so at the time, especially in view of the supreme contempt with which
the pugnacious Tagalog looks down upon the meek and complaisant Chinese
and the mortal antipathy that exists between the two races.—Tr.

[37] It is regrettable that Quiroga’s picturesque butchery of Spanish
and Tagalog—the dialect of the Manila Chinese—cannot be reproduced
here. Only the thought can be given. There is the same difficulty with
r’s, d’s, and l’s that the Chinese show in English.—Tr.

[38] Up to the outbreak of the insurrection in 1896, the only genuinely
Spanish troops in the islands were a few hundred artillerymen, the rest
being natives, with Spanish officers.—Tr.

[39] Abaka is the fiber obtained from the leaves of the Musa textilis
and is known commercially as Manila hemp. As it is exclusively a
product of the Philippines, it may be taken here to symbolize the
country.—Tr.

[40] Yet Ben-Zayb was not very much mistaken. The three legs of the
table have grooves in them in which slide the mirrors hidden below the
platform and covered by the squares of the carpet. By placing the box
upon the table a spring is pressed and the mirrors rise gently. The
cloth is then removed, with care to raise it instead of letting it
slide off, and then there is the ordinary table of the talking heads.
The table is connected with the bottom of the box. The exhibition
ended, the prestidigitator again covers the table, presses another
spring, and the mirrors descend.—Author’s note.

[41] The Malay method of kissing is quite different from the
Occidental. The mouth is placed close to the object and a deep breath
taken, often without actually touching the object, being more of a
sniff than a kiss.—Tr.

[42] Now Calle Tetuan, Santa Cruz. The other names are still in
use.—Tr.

[43] The Sociedad Económica de Amigos del País for the encouragement of
agricultural and industrial development, was established by Basco de
Vargas in 1780.—Tr.

[44] Funds managed by the government for making loans and supporting
charitable enterprises.—Tr.

[45] The names are fictitious burlesques.—Tr.

[46] “Boiled Shrimp”—Tr.

[47] “Uncle Frank.”—Tr.

[48] Messageries Maritimes, a French line of steamers in the Oriental
trade.—Tr.

[49] Referring to the expeditions—Misión Española Católica—to the
Caroline and Pelew Islands from 1886 to 1895, headed by the Capuchin
Fathers, which brought misery and disaster upon the natives of those
islands, unprofitable losses and sufferings to the Filipino soldiers
engaged in them, discredit to Spain, and decorations of merit to a
number of Spanish officers.—Tr.

[50] Over the possession of the Caroline and Pelew Islands. The
expeditions referred to in the previous note were largely inspired by
German activity with regard to those islands, which had always been
claimed by Spain, who sold her claim to them to Germany after the loss
of the Philippines.—Tr.

[51] “Where the wind wrinkles the silent waves, that rapidly break,
    of their own movement, with a gentle murmur on the shore.”—Tr.

[52] “Where rapid and winged engines will rush in flight.”—Tr.

[53] There is something almost uncanny about the general accuracy of
the prophecy in these lines, the economic part of which is now so well
on the way to realization, although the writer of them would doubtless
have been a very much surprised individual had he also foreseen how it
would come about. But one of his own expressions was “fire and steel to
the cancer,” and it surely got them.

On the very day that this passage was translated and this note written,
the first commercial liner was tied up at the new docks, which have
destroyed the Malecon but raised Manila to the front rank of Oriental
seaports, and the final revision is made at Baguio, Mountain Province,
amid the “cooler temperatures on the slopes of the mountains.” As for
the political portion, it is difficult even now to contemplate calmly
the blundering fatuity of that bigoted medieval brand of “patriotism”
which led the decrepit Philippine government to play the Ancient
Mariner and shoot the Albatross that brought this message.—Tr.

[54] These establishments are still a notable feature of native life in
Manila. Whether the author adopted a title already common or
popularized one of his own invention, the fact is that they are now
invariably known by the name used here. The use of macanista was due to
the presence in Manila of a large number of Chinese from Macao.—Tr.

[55] Originally, Plaza San Gabriel, from the Dominican mission for the
Chinese established there; later, as it became a commercial center,
Plaza Vivac; and now known as Plaza Cervantes, being the financial
center of Manila.—Tr.

[56] “The manager of this restaurant warns the public to leave
absolutely nothing on any table or chair.”—Tr.

[57] “We do not believe in the verisimilitude of this dialogue,
fabricated by the author in order to refute the arguments of the
friars, whose pride was so great that it would not permit any Isagani
to tell them these truths face to face. The invention of Padre
Fernandez as a Dominican professor is a stroke of generosity on Rizal’s
part, in conceding that there could have existed any friar capable of
talking frankly with an Indian.”—W. E. Retana, in note to this chapter
in the edition published by him at Barcelona in 1908. Retana ought to
know of what he is writing, for he was in the employ of the friars for
several years and later in Spain wrote extensively for the journal
supported by them to defend their position in the Philippines. He has
also been charged with having strongly urged Rizal’s execution in 1896.
Since 1898, however, he has doubled about, or, perhaps more aptly,
performed a journalistic somersault—having written a diffuse biography
and other works dealing with Rizal. He is strong in unassorted facts,
but his comments, when not inane and wearisome, approach a maudlin wail
over “spilt milk,” so the above is given at its face value only.—Tr.

[58] Quite suggestive of, and perhaps inspired by, the author’s own
experience.—Tr.

[59] The Walled City, the original Manila, is still known to the
Spaniards and older natives exclusively as such, the other districts
being referred to by their distinctive names.—Tr.

[60] Nearly all the dialogue in this chapter is in the mongrel
Spanish-Tagalog “market language,” which cannot be reproduced in
English.—Tr.

[61] Doubtless a reference to the author’s first work, Noli Me Tangere,
which was tabooed by the authorities.—Tr.

[62] Such inanities as these are still a feature of Manila
journalism.—Tr.

[63] “Whether there would be a talisain cock, armed with a sharp gaff,
whether the blessed Peter’s fighting-cock would be a bulik—”

Talisain and bulik are distinguishing terms in the vernacular for
fighting-cocks, tari and sasabung̃in the Tagalog terms for “gaff” and
“game-cock,” respectively.

The Tagalog terminology of the cockpit and monkish Latin certainly make
a fearful and wonderful mixture—nor did the author have to resort to
his imagination to get samples of it.—Tr.

[64] This is Quiroga’s pronunciation of Christo.—Tr.

[65] The native priests Burgos, Gomez, and Zamora, charged with
complicity in the uprising of 1872, and executed.—Tr.

[66] This versicle, found in the booklets of prayer, is common on the
scapularies, which, during the late insurrection, were easily converted
into the anting-anting, or amulets, worn by the fanatics.—Tr.

[67] This practise—secretly compelling suspects to sign a request to be
transferred to some other island—was by no means a figment of the
author’s imagination, but was extensively practised to anticipate any
legal difficulties that might arise.—Tr.

[68] “Hawk-Eye.”—Tr.

[69] Ultima Razón de Reyes: the last argument of kings—force.
(Expression attributed to Calderon de la Barca, the great Spanish
dramatist.)—Tr.

[70] Curiously enough, and by what must have been more than a mere
coincidence, this route through Santa Mesa from San Juan del Monte was
the one taken by an armed party in their attempt to enter the city at
the outbreak of the Katipunan rebellion on the morning of August 30,
1896. (Foreman’s The Philippine Islands, Chap. XXVI.)

It was also on the bridge connecting these two places that the first
shot in the insurrection against American sovereignty was fired on the
night of February 4, 1899.—Tr.

[71] Spanish etiquette requires a host to welcome his guest with the
conventional phrase: “The house belongs to you.”—Tr.

[72] The handwriting on the wall at Belshazzar’s feast, foretelling the
destruction of Babylon. Daniel, v, 25–28.—Tr.

[73] A town in Ciudad Real province, Spain.—Tr.

[74] The italicized words are in English in the original.—Tr.

[75] A Spanish hero, whose chief exploit was the capture of Gibraltar
from the Moors in 1308.—Tr.

[76] Emilio Castelar (1832–1899), generally regarded as the greatest of
Spanish orators.—Tr.

[77] In the original the message reads: “Español escondido casa Padre
Florentino cojera remitirá vivo muerto.” Don Tiburcio understands
cojera as referring to himself; there is a play upon the Spanish words
cojera, lameness, and cogerá, a form of the verb coger, to seize or
capture—j and g in these two words having the same sound, that of the
English h.—Tr.




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