The hero of the Filipinos The story of José Rizal, poet, patriot and martyr
At the first alarm, Bonifacio and some others had made their escape; he
was now in the country proclaiming the republic and raising troops; but
of Filipinos that still remained and could be accused of affiliation
with his hated society there was naturally no lack, and in a few hours
the jails were overflowing and the executioner overworked.
With almost the first breath of this midsummer madness, his enemies
thought of Rizal. “Noli Me Tangere”! The time had come full cycle for
revenge for that flagrant insult. Days passed, and the object of their
hatred lay there almost before their eyes, the broad yellow and red of
Spain flapping over him, wholly at the mercy of the Government he had
opposed. What hindered it that it did not seize him and thrust him into
prison with the rest of the conspirators, and so to Bagumbayan and an
end with him? After a time the impatient clerical party concluded that
the real obstacle was Ramon Blanco. With him the friars had never been
content; after the uncovering of the Katipunan they accused him of lack
of energy in killing rebels, and a feud sprang up between him and
Archbishop Nozaleda. [204] By common report he was now at the crisis of
the play giving to the world an illustration of the folly of
nationalistic generalizations. All Spaniards were supposed to hate and
fear Rizal; Blanco, a Spaniard, would not deliver Rizal to the
torturers because he knew the man was innocent, and he was resolved at
whatsoever cost to stand between innocence and the lynchers. [205]
But if this was a worthy exhibition of virtue in Spanish character it
led in the end to only another demonstration of the power of the
friars. They worked the cable to Madrid, and in two months they secured
the recall of Blanco [206] and the appointment of a man in his place
that had no scruples about judicial murder and much thumb-screwing.
Polavieja was his name. The Philippines were not likely soon to forget
it.
But at the moment the victim the Interests Triumphant sought was
slipping out of their hands. They must have reflected with
inexpressible rage that he would have been helpless if they had but
allowed him to remain in Manila instead of marooning him on the shores
of Dapitan. Yet there was a chance that he could be clutched and
brought back and torn to pieces. Some news of the sirocco of rage and
terror that had seized Manila reached the Isla de Panay. One of his
Filipino fellow-passengers, Pedro P. Roxas, rich but a sturdy advocate
of Philippine independence, foresaw what was at hand and quietly
stepped ashore at Singapore, where he was under the protection of
another flag. Fervently he had urged Rizal to go with him, pointing out
that his enemies were certain to take advantage of the existing panic
to kill him, and that as he was virtually a political fugitive he was
justified in seeking a political asylum. He pleaded in vain: Rizal made
answer that he had done no wrong; he would not flee. [207] He held upon
his way, and at Suez the great claw descended upon him. On a cabled
order from Manila he was put under arrest, and thence to Barcelona he
was a prisoner. [208]
The instructions were that he was to be returned as speedily as
possible to Manila for trial. He arrived at Barcelona in the morning. A
steamer was to sail for Manila that afternoon. Nevertheless, for the
few hours he must stay in Barcelona he was thrust into prison, the
sudden reversal of the confidence with which he had before been treated
indicating plainly enough to the initiated which party was now in
control at Manila. By a strange turn of fate, the Spanish commandant at
Barcelona was that same Despujol that had so basely decoyed him from
Hong-Kong into Spanish power and but for whom he might have been at
that moment safe beyond Spanish clutches. Despujol had the hardihood to
call upon the man whose life he had sold. Rizal received him with the
tolerant spirit that was so marked in his character, for it is not
recorded of him anywhere that he uttered so much as one reproach
against those that had wronged him; and Despujol seems to have felt
something like contrition as he viewed the wreck he had made of a life
so unusual.
That afternoon the steamer left for Manila with Rizal a prisoner on it.
It is like a story of overruling destiny. News of the arrest, by this
device, of the most illustrious savant in all the Spanish dominions,
one of the foremost scientists of the times, had been telegraphed about
the world and stirred a general resentment. All men that understood
colonial Spain looked with gloomiest forebodings upon his probable
doom, now that he was fanged by that medieval dragon. A plan was formed
to rescue him when the steamer should reach Singapore by suing out a
writ of habeas corpus and so snatching him from Spanish authority.
[209] So slender are the chances of fate that a mere decoration on a
flag brought to naught this benevolent design. The steamer was the
ordinary packet-boat, but on this occasion she was carrying a few
troops to the Philippines. Being deemed, therefore, on this voyage to
have the status of a transport, she hoisted the Spanish royal ensign,
and against that emblem the kindly plotters felt they had no right to
proceed. Government vessels are not subject to the authority of other
nations whose ports they chance to enter.
CHAPTER XVI
“I CAME FROM MARTYRDOM UNTO THIS PEACE”
It was November 3, 1896, when Rizal, heavily guarded, passed again
through the dark gateway of Fort Santiago, whence he had issued four
years before to go to Dapitan. Now his enemies had him wholly in their
power; he was dragged to earth at last. Yet for a time they were
puzzled how to proceed with him. Dull as they were and remote from the
highways of European thought, they were not unaware that the eyes of a
scornful world were upon them. Therefore they could not, as in the
cases of so many “unvalued men,” shoot him at sunrise on a dunghill.
Some pretense of legality must be followed; there must be regard to
decency.
But of anything civilized men could call evidence against him or of
reason for anything such men could call a trial there was no trace nor
suggestion. Say that the Katipunan was all that hysteria described it;
not a scrap of paper connected Rizal with it. He was not a member; he
had expressly disapproved of its aims; he had been an exile in Dapitan
while it was being formed. How then? And what then? In all such
dilemmas it had been the practice of the Government of the Philippines
to resort to those medieval precedents that best befitted the theory
upon which its authority was based. Where required testimony was not to
be stumbled upon it was usually to be produced with the thumb-screw and
the lash; to torture somebody into perjury was the sovereign specific.
Upon these promptings the authorities seized Paciano, Rizal’s brother,
and exercised upon him their most recondite arts. To his left hand was
fitted the terrible screw; at his right were pen and ink and a
statement that his brother had part in the Katipunan conspiracy. Then
the screw was applied until the victim fainted with the pain. But he
would not sign; no, not for all the ingenious torments of their
devising. There was iron in the Rizal blood; father and mother had
shown it. When the mother had started to trudge around Laguna de Bay,
when the father had refused to submit to the tyranny of the friar’s
agent, when José had dared to write “Noli Me Tangere,” they had
vindicated their tribal inheritance. Paciano was all of the same stern
race. Day and night the horror continued; he was trussed up until he
fainted again, and then was revived with stimulants for new sufferings,
and still he would not sign. Then his mind began to wander; he was
plainly unable to sign anything, and the torturers released him. [210]
Meantime José, though undeceived as to his probable fate, fought for
his life with the resolute courage of his kin. He knew there was no
evidence against him, that before no court with the least respect for
justice could he be convicted. But he determined to make that
conviction as difficult as possible and as shameful in the eyes of the
world. From his prison-house he issued this address:
My countrymen:
On my return from Spain I learned that my name had been in use,
among some who were in arms, as a war-cry. The news came as a
painful surprise, but, believing the incident to be closed, I kept
silence over what seemed to be irremediable. I now notice
indications that the disturbances are continuing, and lest any
persons, in good faith or bad, should avail themselves of the use
of my name, to stop such an abuse and to undeceive the unwary I
hasten to address you these lines and make known the truth.
From the very beginning, when I first had notice of what was being
planned, I opposed it, fought it, and demonstrated its absolute
impossibility. This is the fact, and witnesses to my words are
still living. I was convinced that the scheme was utterly absurd,
and, what was worse, would bring great suffering.
I did even more. When later, against my advice, the movement
materialized, of my own accord I offered not alone my good offices,
but my very life, and even my name, to be used in whatever way
might seem best, toward stifling the rebellion; for, convinced of
the ills which it would bring, I considered myself fortunate if, at
any sacrifice, I could prevent such useless misfortunes. This is
equally of record. My countrymen, I have given proofs that I am one
most anxious for liberties for our country, and I am still desirous
of them. But I place as a prior condition the education of the
people, that by means of instruction and industry our country may
have an individuality of its own and make itself worthy of these
liberties. I have recommended in my writings the study of the civic
virtues, without which there is no redemption. I have written also
(and I repeat my words) that reforms, to be beneficial, must come
from above, that those which come from below are irregularly gained
and uncertain.
Holding these ideas, I cannot do less than condemn, and I do
condemn this uprising—as absurd, savage, and plotted behind my
back—which dishonors us Filipinos and discredits those that could
plead our cause. I abhor its criminal methods and disclaim all part
in it, pitying from the bottom of my heart the unwary that have
been deceived into taking part in it.
Return then to your homes, and may God pardon those that have
wrought in bad faith! [211]
José Rizal.
Fort Santiago, December 15, 1896.
Still remained for his enemies the necessity of a semblance of charges
upon which might be based the semblance of a trial. As a move of
obvious desperation they now fell back upon the fantasy that La Liga
Filipina was an illegal body and upon the precarious assertion that
even if he had no connection with the Katipunan it had been formed as a
result of his teachings. Upon these grounds and only these his life was
to be sought; the first wholly untrue, the other tenuous and fraught
with grave danger to the existence of any system of justice. As for La
Liga Filipina, that was as seditious as an average board of trade, and
as secret; it had no purposes but economic improvement and Filipino
union. But the other charge was a different matter. If it could be held
that Rizal’s teachings were such that they instigated an uprising he
had always opposed, then any but a paralyzed dumb man could be held
responsible for anything that happened anywhere. Suppose, for instance,
a British newspaper to criticize severely the British prime minister,