[[115]]
It is like a conversation in Rizal’s own heart between the spirit of the college and the spirit of his country. Into it, beyond a doubt, he put the conflict that was torturing his soul. The spirit of love and good will in him grappling like Jacob with the soul that told him that from oppressions by violence could come only revolt by violence.
It may be profitable to follow this farther. It is a page of Rizal’s own revealing always overlooked by those that insist he was opposed to Philippine independence.
“You may say [the pilot goes on] that you are only slightly acquainted with your country, and I believe you. You don’t see the struggle that is preparing; you don’t see the cloud on the horizon. The fight is beginning in the sphere of ideas, to descend later into the arena, which will be dyed with blood. I hear the voice of God—woe unto them who would oppose it! For them history has not been written!”
No one can believe Rizal wrote this without feeling it in his heart and soul.
Elias was transfigured; standing uncovered, with his manly face illuminated by the moon, there was something extraordinary about him. He shook his long hair and went on:
“Don’t you see how everything is awakening? The sleep has lasted for centuries, but one day the thunderbolt struck, and, in striking, infused life.”
He means the slaying of the guiltless priests, Fathers Burgos, Gomez, and Zamora, victims to the homicidal mania that descended upon the Government after the revolt of 1872. [[116]]
“Since then [the pilot continues] new tendencies are stirring our spirits, and these tendencies, to-day scattered, will some day be united, guided by the God who has not failed other peoples, and who will not fail us, for his cause is the cause of liberty!”[5]
The trap the friars have prepared for Ibarra is a thing infamous in Philippine history, and yet so common that in fact and not in fiction it has sent scores of innocent men to their deaths. It had never been known to fail. Agents provocateurs stage a pretended revolt. Nothing is easier; the materials are always to hand; likewise the occasion. It is but necessary to take the latest outrage by the Civil Guard and stir some one to object to it. The rest follows automatically. In this instance Ibarra is the pretended instigator, although he has never heard of the wrong he is supposed to resent.
Elias warns him of what is afoot and urges him to escape; innocent as he is, he shall have no chance for his life before the tribunal that will try him if he waits for arrest. He will not go until he has had word with Maria Clara. The last scene between them is excellent drama; he gets under her window in a boat and climbs up the vines. For the charge of complicity in the stage rebellion is no basis except a letter that seven years before he had written to her. Some phrases that might be construed to suggest a vague discontent with conditions in the Philippines make up the entire case. On slighter evidence many a man has been tortured first and gone next to the Golgotha at Bagumbayan Field. The friars have this letter. How did they get it when [[117]]for so many years it had been one of the dearest possessions of Maria Clara? Ibarra can surmise only that she has willingly surrendered it and so betrayed him. In that last interview he learns that it was filched from her by the friar Silva, whose interest in her has been more than ecclesiastical and who on the same occasion has disclosed to her the facts as to her own parentage.