The Social Cancer: A Complete English Version of Noli Me Tangere
up papers, books, and letters. Soon a big fire was burning in the
kitchen. Old shotguns were smashed with axes, rusty revolvers were
thrown away. The maidservant who wanted to keep the barrel of one
for a blowpipe received a reprimand:
"_Conservare etiam sperasti, perfida?_ [164] Into the fire!" So
he continued his auto da fé. Seeing an old volume in vellum,
he read the title, _Revolutions of the Celestial Globes_,
by Copernicus. Whew! "_Ite, maledicti, in ignem kalanis!_"
[165] he exclaimed, hurling it into the flames. "Revolutions and
Copernicus! Crimes on crimes! If I hadn't come in time! _Liberty in
the Philippines!_ Ta, ta, ta! What books! Into the fire!"
Harmless books, written by simple authors, were burned; not even the
most innocent work escaped. Cousin Primitivo was right: the righteous
suffer for the sinners.
Four or five hours later, at a pretentious reception in the Walled
City, current events were being commented upon. There were present
a lot of old women and maidens of marriageable age, the wives and
daughters of government employees, dressed in loose gowns, fanning
themselves and yawning. Among the men, who, like the women, showed
in their faces their education and origin, was an elderly gentleman,
small and one-armed, whom the others treated with great respect. He
himself maintained a disdainful silence.
"To tell the truth, formerly I couldn't endure the friars and the
civil-guards, they're so rude," said a corpulent dame, "but now that
I see their usefulness and their services, I would almost marry any
one of them gladly. I'm a patriot."
"That's what I say!" added a thin lady. "What a pity that we haven't
our former governor. He would leave the country as clean as a platter."
"And the whole race of filibusters would be exterminated!"
"Don't they say that there are still a lot of islands to be
populated? Why don't they deport all these crazy Indians to them? If
I were the Captain-General--"
"Señoras," interrupted the one-armed individual, "the Captain-General
knows his duty. As I've heard, he's very much irritated, for he had
heaped favors on that Ibarra."
"Heaped favors on him!" echoed the thin lady, fanning herself
furiously. "Look how ungrateful these Indians are! Is it possible to
treat them as if they were human beings? _Jesús!_"
"Do you know what I've heard?" asked a military official.
"What's that?"
"Let's hear it!"
"What do they say?"
"Reputable persons," replied the officer in the midst of a profound
silence, "state that this agitation for building a schoolhouse was
a pure fairy tale."
"_Jesús!_ Just see that!" the señoras exclaimed, already believing
in the trick.
"The school was a pretext. What he wanted to build was a fort from
which he could safely defend himself when we should come to attack
him."
"What infamy! Only an Indian is capable of such cowardly thoughts,"
exclaimed the fat lady. "If I were the Captain-General they would
soon seem they would soon see--"
"That's what I say!" exclaimed the thin lady, turning to the one-armed
man. "Arrest all the little lawyers, priestlings, merchants, and
without trial banish or deport them! Tear out the evil by the roots!"
"But it's said that this filibuster is the descendant of Spaniards,"
observed the one-armed man, without looking at any one in particular.
"Oh, yes!" exclaimed the fat lady, unterrified. "It's always the
creoles! No Indian knows anything about revolution! Rear crows,
rear crows!" [166]
"Do you know what I've heard?" asked a creole lady, to change the topic
of conversation. "The wife of Capitan Tinong, you remember her, the
woman in whose house we danced and dined during the fiesta of Tondo--"
"The one who has two daughters? What about her?"
"Well, that woman just this afternoon presented the Captain-General
with a ring worth a thousand pesos!"
The one-armed man turned around. "Is that so? Why?" he asked with
shining eyes.
"She said that it was a Christmas gift--"
"But Christmas doesn't come for a month yet!"
"Perhaps she's afraid the storm is blowing her way," observed the
fat lady.
"And is getting under cover," added the thin señora.
"When no return is asked, it's a confession of guilt."
"This must be carefully looked into," declared the one-armed man
thoughtfully. "I fear that there's a cat in the bag."
"A cat in the bag, yes! That's just what I was going to say," echoed
the thin lady.
"And so was I," said the other, taking the words out of her mouth,
"the wife of Capitan Tinong is so stingy--she hasn't yet sent us
any present and that after we've been in her house. So, when such
a grasping and covetous woman lets go of a little present worth a
thousand pesos--"
"But, is it a fact?" inquired the one-armed man.
"Certainly! Most certainly! My cousin's sweetheart, his Excellency's
adjutant, told her so. And I'm of the opinion that it's the very same
ring that the older daughter wore on the day of the fiesta. She's
always covered with diamonds."
"A walking show-case!"
"A way of attracting attention, like any other! Instead of buying a
fashion plate or paying a dressmaker--"
Giving some pretext, the one-armed man left the gathering. Two hours
later, when the world slept, various residents of Tondo received an
invitation through some soldiers. The authorities could not consent
to having certain persons of position and property sleep in such
poorly guarded and badly ventilated houses--in Fort Santiago and
other government buildings their sleep would be calmer and more
refreshing. Among these favored persons was included the unfortunate
Capitan Tinong.
CHAPTER LX
Maria Clara Weds
Capitan Tiago was very happy, for in all this terrible storm no one
had taken any notice of him. He had not been arrested, nor had he been
subjected to solitary confinement, investigations, electric machines,
continuous foot-baths in underground cells, or other pleasantries that
are well-known to certain folk who call themselves civilized. His
friends, that is, those who had been his friends--for the good man
had denied all his Filipino friends from the instant when they were
suspected by the government--had also returned to their homes after a
few days' vacation in the state edifices. The Captain-General himself
had ordered that they be cast out from his precincts, not considering
them worthy of remaining therein, to the great disgust of the one-armed
individual, who had hoped to celebrate the approaching Christmas in
their abundant and opulent company.
Capitan Tinong had returned to his home sick, pale, and swollen; the
excursion had not done him good. He was so changed that he said not
a word, nor even greeted his family, who wept, laughed, chattered,
and almost went mad with joy. The poor man no longer ventured out
of his house for fear of running the risk of saying good-day to a
filibuster. Not even Don Primitivo himself, with all the wisdom of
the ancients, could draw him out of his silence.
"_Crede, prime_," the Latinist told him, "if I hadn't got here to
burn all your papers, they would have squeezed your neck; and if I
had burned the whole house they wouldn't have touched a hair of your
head. But _quod_ _eventum, eventum; gratias agamus Domino Deo quia
non in Marianis Insulis es, camotes seminando_." [167]
Stories similar to Capitan Tinong's were not unknown to Capitan Tiago,
so he bubbled over with gratitude, without knowing exactly to whom he
owed such signal favors. Aunt Isabel attributed the miracle to the
Virgin of Antipolo, to the Virgin of the Rosary, or at least to the
Virgin of Carmen, and at the very, very least that she was willing
to concede, to Our Lady of the Girdle; according to her the miracle
could not get beyond that.
Capitan Tiago did not deny the miracle, but added: "I think so, Isabel,
but the Virgin of Antipolo couldn't have done it alone. My friends
have helped, my future son-in-law, Señor Linares, who, as you know,
joked with Señor Antonio Canovas himself, the premier whose portrait
appears in the _Ilustración_, he who doesn't condescend to show more
than half his face to the people."
So the good man could not repress a smile of satisfaction every
time that he heard any important news. And there was plenty of news:
it was whispered about in secret that Ibarra would be hanged; that,
while many proofs of his guilt had been lacking, at last some one
had appeared to sustain the accusation; that experts had declared
that in fact the work on the schoolhouse could pass for a bulwark of
fortification, although somewhat defective, as was only to be expected
of ignorant Indians. These rumors calmed him and made him smile.
In the same way that Capitan Tiago and his cousin diverged in
their opinions, the friends of the family were also divided into
two parties,--one miraculous, the other governmental, although this
latter was insignificant. The miraculous party was again subdivided:
the senior sacristan of Binondo, the candle-woman, and the leader
of the Brotherhood saw the hand of God directed by the Virgin of the
Rosary; while the Chinese wax-chandler, his caterer on his visits to
Antipolo, said, as he fanned himself and shook his leg:
"Don't fool yourself--it's the Virgin of Antipolo! She can do more
than all the rest--don't fool yourself!" [168]
Capitan Tiago had great respect for this Chinese, who passed himself
off as a prophet and a physician. Examining the palm of the deceased
lady just before her daughter was born, he had prognosticated:
"If it's not a boy and doesn't die, it'll be a fine girl!" [169] and
Maria Clara had come into the world to fulfill the infidel's prophecy.
Capitan Tiago, then, as a prudent and cautious man, could not decide
so easily as Trojan Paris--he could not so lightly give the preference
to one Virgin for fear of offending another, a situation that might be
fraught with grave consequences. "Prudence!" he said to himself. "Let's
not go and spoil it all now."
He was still in the midst of these doubts when the governmental party
arrived,--Doña Victorina, Don Tiburcio, and Linares. Doña Victorina did
the talking for the three men as well as for herself. She mentioned
Linares' visits to the Captain-General and repeatedly insinuated
the advantages of a relative of "quality." "Now," she concluded,
"as we was zaying: he who zhelterz himzelf well, builds a good roof."
"T-the other w-way, w-woman!" corrected the doctor.
For some days now she had been endeavoring to _Andalusize_ her speech,
and no one had been able to get this idea out of her head--she would
sooner have first let them tear off her false frizzes.
"Yez," she went on, speaking of Ibarra, "he deserves it all. I told
you zo when I first zaw him, he's a filibuzter. What did the General
zay to you, cousin? What did he zay? What news did he tell you about
thiz Ibarra?"
Seeing that her cousin was slow in answering, she continued, directing
her remarks to Capitan Tiago, "Believe me, if they zentenz him to
death, as is to be hoped, it'll be on account of my cousin."
"Señora, señora!" protested Linares.
But she gave him no time for objections. "How diplomatic you have
become! We know that you're the adviser of the General, that he
couldn't live without you. Ah, Clarita, what a pleasure to zee you!"
Maria Clara was still pale, although now quite recovered from her
illness. Her long hair was tied up with a light blue silk ribbon. With
a timid bow and a sad smile she went up to Doña Victorina for the
ceremonial kiss.
After the usual conventional remarks, the pseudo-Andalusian continued:
"We've come to visit you. You've been zaved, thankz to your
relations." This was said with a significant glance toward Linares.
"God has protected my father," replied the girl in a low voice.