El Filibusterismo. English

  CHAPTER IX

  PILATES

  When the news of this misfortune became known in the town, somelamented 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 anorder to take up all the arms and he had performed his duty. He hadchased the tulisanes whenever he could, and when they captured CabesangTales he had organized an expedition and brought into the town,with their arms bound behind them, five or six rustics who lookedsuspicious, so if Cabesang Tales did not show up it was because hewas not in the pockets or under the skins of the prisoners, who werethoroughly shaken out.

  The friar-administrator shrugged his shoulders: he had nothing todo with it, it was a matter of tulisanes and he had merely done hisduty. True it was that if he had not entered the complaint, perhaps thearms would not have been taken up, and poor Tales would not have beencaptured; 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 goodtarget in some part of his body. Self-defense is natural. If thereare tulisanes, the fault is not his, it is not his duty to run themdown--that belongs to the Civil Guard. If Cabesang Tales, insteadof wandering about his fields, had stayed at home, he would not havebeen captured. In short, that was a punishment from heaven upon thosewho resisted the demands of his corporation.

  When Sister Penchang, the pious old woman in whose service Julihad entered, learned of it, she ejaculated several _'Susmarioseps_,crossed herself, and remarked, "Often God sends these trials becausewe are sinners or have sinning relatives, to whom we should havetaught piety and we haven't done so."

  Those _sinning relatives_ referred to Juliana, for to this piouswoman Juli was a great sinner. "Think of a girl of marriageable agewho doesn't yet know how to pray! _Jesus_, how scandalous! If thewretch doesn't say the _Dios te salve Maria_ without stopping at _escontigo_, and the _Santa Maria_ without a pause after _pecadores_, asevery good Christian who fears God ought to do! She doesn't know the_oremus gratiam_, and says _mentibus_ for _mentibus_. Anybody hearingher 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 daughtermight be snatched from sin and learn the virtues which, accordingto the curates, should adorn every Christian woman. She thereforekept the girl constantly at work, not allowing her to return to thevillage to look after her grandfather. Juli had to learn how to pray,to read the books distributed by the friars, and to work until thetwo hundred and fifty pesos should be paid.

  When she learned that Basilio had gone to Manila to get his savingsand ransom Juli from her servitude, the good woman believed that thegirl was forever lost and that the devil had presented himself inthe guise of the student. Dreadful as it all was, how true was thatlittle book the curate had given her! Youths who go to Manila tostudy 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 certainlywon the suit, so they took advantage of Cabesang Tales' captivityto turn the fields over to the one who had asked for them, withoutthe least thought of honor or the faintest twinge of shame. Whenthe former owner returned and learned what had happened, when he sawhis fields in another's possession,--those fields that had cost thelives of his wife and daughter,--when he saw his father dumb and hisdaughter working as a servant, and when he himself received an orderfrom the town council, transmitted through the headman of the village,to move out of the house within three days, he said nothing; he satdown at his father's side and spoke scarcely once during the whole day.