4. Secret associations.
5. Political and anti-republican activity.
6. Reactionary influence.
In this dark hour, when with sad hearts we are all compelled to quit our beloved Portugal, I owe to my country a categorical reply to these accusations of our persecutors.
1. ARMAMENTS AND SUBTERRANEAN GALLERIES.
The answer is simple. We had no armaments whatever, nor in any of our houses were there subterranean passages by which to escape or communicate with others.
ARRESTING A NUN.
And yet, had it been otherwise, had we possessed such covered ways—what then? Had we not a right in view of what had occurred? Our conduct, though less frank and open, would have been at least more business-like, as was said a few weeks ago in the Spanish Parliament, by the Premier Canalejas, in regard of defensive works said to exist in some religious houses. How then, what happened at Campolide, where the mob broke in, flooding corridors and private rooms, bursting open everything, throwing about books and papers, and threatening to shoot the unfortunate inmates? Does not all this show that it would have been highly advantageous to have had some means of hindering the sack of the college until the public force could come to the rescue? In reality, however, there was nothing of the sort.
In the whole building of Campolide were only a couple of guns for purposes of sport, when our professors went for a fortnight's holiday to a country house at Val de Royal. Moreover, these guns were not employed when the assault took place.