"What's the matter with you, dona?" she asked.
"Could you tell me, senora, why you stare at me in this fashion? Areyou jealous?" Dona Victorina was at last able to say.
"I jealous? And of you?" replied the alfereza calmly. "Yes, I'mjealous of your frizzes."
"Come away there!" broke in the doctor; "d--d--don't payat--t--t--tention to these f--f--follies!"
"Let me alone! I have to give a lesson to this brazenface!" repliedthe doctora, joggling her husband, who just missed sprawling inthe dust.
"Consider to whom you are speaking!" she said haughtily, turningback to Dona Consolacion. "Don't think I am a provincial or a womanof your class. With us, at Manila, the alferezas are not received;they wait at the door."
"Ho! ho! most worshipful senora, the alferezas wait at the door! Butyou receive such paralytics as this gentleman! Ha! ha! ha!"
Had she been less powdered Dona Victorina might have been seen toblush. She started to rush on her enemy, but the sentinel stood inthe way. The street was filling with a curious crowd.
"Know that I demean myself in speaking to you; persons of positionlike me ought not! Will you wash my clothes? I will pay you well. Doyou suppose I do not know you are a washerwoman?"
Dona Consolacion sat erect. To be called a washerwoman had wounded her.
"And do you think we don't know who you are?" she retorted. "Myhusband has told me! Senora, I, at least----"
But she could not be heard. Dona Victorina, wildly shaking her fists,screamed out:
"Come down, you old hussy, come down and let me tear your beautifuleyes out!"
Rapidly the medusa disappeared from the window; more rapidly yetshe came running down the steps, brandishing her husband's terriblewhip. Don Tiburcio, supplicating both, threw himself between, but hecould not have prevented the combat, had not the alferez arrived.
"Well, well, senoras!--Don Tiburcio!"
"Give your wife a little more breeding, buy her more beautiful clothes,and if you haven't the money, steal it from the people of the pueblo;you have soldiers for that!" cried Dona Victorina.
"Senora," said the alferez, furious, "it is fortunate that I rememberyou are a woman; if I didn't, I should trample you down, with allyour curls and ribbons!"
"Se--senor alferez!"
"Move on, charlatan! It's not you who wear the breeches!"
Armed with words and gestures, with cries, insults, and injuries,the two women hurled at each other all there was in them of soiland shame. All four talked at once, and in the multitude of wordsnumerous verities were paraded in the light. If they did not hearall, the crowd of the curious did not fail to be diverted. They werelooking forward to battle, but, unhappily for these amateurs of sport,the curate came by and established peace.
"Senoras! senoras! what a scandal! Senor alferez!"
"What are you doing here, hypocrite, carlist!"
"Don Tiburcio, take away your wife! Senora, restrain your tongue!"
Little by little the dictionary of sounding epithets becameexhausted. The shameless shrews found nothing left to say to eachother, and still threatening, the two couples drew slowly apart,the curate going from one to the other, lavishing himself on both.
"We shall leave for Manila this very day and present ourselves tothe captain-general!" said the infuriated Dona Victorina to herhusband. "You are no man!"
"But--but, wife, the guards, and I am lame."
"You are to challenge him, with swords or pistols, or else--orelse----" And she looked at his teeth.
"Woman, I've never handled----"
Dona Victorina let him go no farther; with a sublime movement shesnatched out his teeth, threw them in the dust, and trampled themunder her feet. The doctor almost crying, the doctora pelting himwith sarcasms, they arrived at the house of Captain Tiago. Linares,who was talking with Maria Clara, was no little disquieted by theabrupt arrival of his cousins. Maria, amid the pillows of her fauteuil,was not less surprised at the new physiognomy of her doctor.
"Cousin," said Dona Victorina, "you are to go and challenge thealferez this instant; if not----"
"Why?" demanded the astonished Linares.
"You are to go and challenge him this instant; if not, I shall sayhere, and to everybody, who you are."
"Dona Victorina!"
The three friends looked at each other.
"The alferez has insulted us. The old sorceress came down with a whipto assault us, and this creature did nothing to prevent it! A man!"
"Hear that!" said Sinang regretfully. "There was a fight, and wedidn't see it!"
"The alferez broke the doctor's teeth!" added Dona Victorina.
Captain Tiago entered, but he wasn't given time to get his breath. Infew words, with an intermingling of spicy language, Dona Victorinanarrated what had passed, naturally trying to put herself in agood light.
"Linares is going to challenge him, do you hear? Or don't let himmarry your daughter. If he isn't courageous, he doesn't merit Clarita."
"What! you are going to marry this gentleman?" Sinang asked Maria,her laughing eyes filling with tears. "I know you are discreet,but I didn't think you inconstant."
Maria Clara, white as alabaster, looked with great, frightened eyesfrom her father to Dona Victorina, from Dona Victorina to Linares. Theyoung man reddened; Captain Tiago dropped his head.
"Help me to my room," Maria said to her friends, and steadied bytheir round arms, her head on the shoulder of Victorina, she went out.
That night the husband and wife packed their trunks, and presentedtheir account--no trifle--to Captain Tiago. The next morning theyset out for Manila, leaving to the pacific Linares the role of avenger.
XXXIX.
THE OUTLAWED.
By the feeble moonlight that penetrates the thick foliage of foresttrees, a man was making his way through the woods. His movement wasslow but assured. From time to time, as if to get his bearings, hewhistled an air, to which another whistler in the distance repliedby repeating it.
At last, after struggling long against the many obstacles a virginforest opposes to the march of man, and most obstinately at night,he arrived at a little clearing, bathed in the light of the moon inits first quarter. Scarcely had he entered it when another man camecarefully out from behind a great rock, a revolver in his hand.
"Who are you?" he demanded with authority in Tagalo.
"Is old Pablo with you?" asked the newcomer tranquilly; "if so,tell him Elias is searching for him."
"You are Elias?" said the other, with a certain respect, yet keepinghis revolver cocked. "Follow me!"
They penetrated a cavern, the guide warning the helmsman when tolower his head, when to crawl on all fours. After a short passagethey arrived at a sort of room, dimly lighted by pitch torches, wheretwelve or fifteen men, dirty, ragged, and sinister, were talkinglow among themselves. His elbows resting on a stone, an old man ofsombre face sat apart, looking toward the smoky torches. It was acavern of tulisanes. When Elias arrived, the men started to rise,but at a gesture from the old man they remained quiet, contentingthemselves with examining the newcomer.
"Is it thou, then?" said the old chief, his sad eyes lighting a littleat sight of the young man.
"And you are here!" exclaimed Elias, half to himself.
The old man bent his head in silence, making at the same time a signto the men, who rose and went out, not without taking the helmsman'smeasure with their eyes.
"Yes," said the old man to Elias when they were alone, "six months agoI gave you hospitality in my home; now it is I who receive compassionfrom you. But sit down and tell me how you found me."
"As soon as I heard of your misfortunes," replied Elias slowly,"I set out, and searched from mountain to mountain. I've gone overnearly two provinces." After a short pause in which he tried to readthe old man's thoughts in his sombre face, he went on:
"I have come to make you a proposition. After vainly trying to findsome representative of the family which caused the ruin of my own,I have decided to
go North, and live among the savage tribes. Willyou leave this life you are beginning, and come with me? Let me bea son to you?"
The old man shook his head.
"At my age," he said, "when one has taken a desperate resolution itis final. When such a man as I, who passed his youth and ripe agelaboring to assure his future and that of his children, who submittedalways to the will of superiors, whose conscience is clear--when sucha man, almost on the border of the tomb, renounces all his past, it isbecause after ripe reflection he concludes that there is no such thingas peace. Why go to a strange land to drag out my miserable days? Ihad two sons, a daughter, a home, a fortune. I enjoyed considerationand respect; now I am like a tree stripped of its branches, bare anddesolate. And why? Because a man dishonored my daughter; because mysons wished to seek satisfaction from this man, placed above other byhis office; because this man, fearing them, sought their destructionand accomplished it. And I have survived; but if I did not know howto defend my sons, I shall know how to avenge them. The day my band isstrong enough, I shall go down into the plain and wipe out my vengeanceand my life in fire! Either this day will come or there is no God!"
The old man rose, and, his eyes glittering, his voice cavernous,he cried, fastening his hands in his long hair:
"Malediction, malediction upon me, who held the avenging hands of mysons! I was their assassin!"
"I understand you," said Elias; "I too have a vengeance to satisfy;and yet, from fear of striking the innocent, I choose to forego that."
"You can; you are young; you have not lost your last hope. I too,I swear it, would not strike the innocent. You see this wound? I gotit rather than harm a cuadrillero who was doing his duty."
"And yet," said Elias, "if you carry out your purpose, you will bringdreadful woes to our unhappy country. If with your own hands yousatisfy your vengeance, your enemies will take terrible reprisals--notfrom you, not from those who are armed, but from the people, who arealways the ones accused. When I knew you in other days, you gave mewise counsels: will you permit me----"
The old man crossed his arms and seemed to attend.
"Senor," continued Elias, "I have had the fortune to do a great serviceto a young man, rich, kind of heart, upright, wishing the good ofhis country. It is said he has relations at Madrid; of that I knownothing, but I know he is the friend of the governor-general. Whatdo you think of interesting him in the cause of the miserable andmaking him their voice?"
The old man shook his head.
"He is rich, you say. The rich think only of increasing theirriches. Not one of them would compromise his peace to go to the aidof those who suffer. I know it, I who was rich myself."
"But he is not like the others. And he is a young man about tomarry, who wishes the tranquillity of his country for the sake ofhis children's children."
"He is a man, then, who is going to be happy. Our cause is not thatof fortunate men."
"No, but it is that of men of courage!"
"True," said the old man, seating himself again. "Let us supposehe consents to be our mouthpiece. Let us suppose he wins thecaptain-general, and finds at Madrid deputies who can plead for us;do you believe we shall have justice?"
"Let us try it before we try measures of blood," said Elias. "It mustsurprise you that I, an outlaw too, and young and strong, proposepacific measures. It is because I see the number of miseries whichwe ourselves cause, as well as our tyrants. It is always the unarmedwho pay the penalty."
"And if nothing result from our steps?"
"If we are not heard, if our grievances are made light of, I shallbe the first to put myself under your orders."
The old man embraced Elias, a strange light in his eyes.
"I accept the proposition," he said; "I know you will keep yourword. I will help you to avenge your parents; you shall help me toavenge my sons!"
"Meanwhile, senor, you will do nothing violent."
"And you will set forth the wrongs of the people; you know them. Whenshall I have the response?"
"In four days send me a man to the lake shore of San Diego. I willtell him the decision, and name the person on whom I count."
"Elias will be chief when Captain Pablo is fallen," said the oldman. And he himself accompanied the helmsman out of the cave.
XL.
THE ENIGMA.
The day after the departure of the doctor and the doctora, Ibarrareturned to the pueblo. He hastened to the house of Captain Tiago totell Maria he had been reconciled to the Church. Aunt Isabel, who wasfond of the young fellow, and anxious for his marriage with her niece,was filled with joy. Captain Tiago was not at home.
"Come in!" Aunt Isabel cried in her bad Castilian. "Maria,Crisostomo has returned to favor with the Church; the archbishop hasdisexcommunicated him!"
But Crisostomo stood still, the smile froze on his lips, the wordshe was to say to Maria fled from his mind. Leaning against thebalcony beside her was Linares; on the floor lay leafless roses andsampagas. The Spaniard was making garlands with the flowers andleaves from the vines; Maria Clara, buried in her fauteuil, paleand thoughtful, was playing with an ivory fan, less white than herslender hands.
At sight of Ibarra Linares paled, and carmine tinted the cheeks ofMaria Clara. She tried to rise, but was not strong enough; she loweredher eyes and let her fan fall.
For some seconds there was an embarrassing silence; then Ibarra spoke.
"I have this moment arrived, and came straight here. You are betterthan I thought you were."
One would have said Maria had become mute: her eyes still lowered,she did not say a word in reply. Ibarra looked searchingly at Linares;the timid young man bore the scrutiny with haughtiness.
"I see my arrival was not expected," he went on slowly. "Pardon me,Maria, that I did not have myself announced. Some day I can explainto you--for we shall still see each other--surely!"
At these last words the girl raised toward her fiance her beautifuleyes full of purity and sadness, so suppliant and so sweet that Ibarrastood still in confusion.
"May I come to-morrow?" he asked after a moment.
"You know that to me you are always welcome," she said in a weak voice.
Ibarra left, calm in appearance, but a tempest was in his brain andfreezing cold in his heart. What he had just seen and comprehendedseemed to him incomprehensible. Was it doubt, inconstancy, betrayal?
"Oh, woman!" he murmured.
Without knowing where he went, he arrived at the ground where theschool was going up. Senor Juan hailed him with delight, and showedhim what had been done since he went away.
With surprise Ibarra saw Elias among the workmen; the helmsman salutedhim, as did the others, and at the same time made him understand thathe had something to say to him.
"Senor Juan," said Ibarra, "will you bring me the list ofworkmen?" Senor Juan disappeared, and Ibarra approached Elias, whowas lifting a great stone and loading it on a cart.
"If you can, senor," said the helmsman, "give me an hour ofconversation, there is something grave of which I want to talk withyou. Will you go on the lake early this evening in my boat?"
Ibarra gave a sign of assent and Elias moved away. Senor Juan broughtthe list, but Ibarra searched it in vain for the name of the helmsman.
XLI.
THE VOICE OF THE PERSECUTED.
The sun was just setting when Ibarra stepped into the little boat onthe lake shore. He appeared disturbed.
"Pardon me, senor," said Elias, "for having asked this favor; I wishedto speak to you freely, with no possibility of listeners."
"And what have you to say?"
They had already shot away from the bank. The sun had disappearedbehind the crest of the mountains, and as twilight is of shortduration in this latitude, the night was descending rapidly, lightedby a brilliant moon.
"Senor," replied Elias, "I am the spokesman of many unfortunates." Andbriefly he told of his conversation with the chief of the tulisanes,omitting the old man's doubts and threats.
"And they wis
h?" asked Ibarra, when he had finished.
"Radical reforms in the guard, the clergy, and the administrationof justice."
"Elias," said Ibarra, "I know little of you, but I believe you willunderstand me when I say that though I have friends at Madrid whomI might influence, and though I might interest the captain-generalin these people, neither they nor he could bring about such arevolution. And more, I would not take a step in this direction,because I believe what you want reformed is at present a necessaryevil."
"You also, senor, believe in necessary evil?" said Elias with a tremorin his voice. "You think one must go through evil to arrive at good?"
"No; but I look at evil as a violent remedy we sometimes use to cureourselves of illness."
"It is a bad medicine, senor, that does away with the symptoms withoutsearching out the cause of the disease. The Municipal Guard existsonly to suppress crime by force and terrorizing."
"The institution may be imperfect, but the terror it inspires keepsdown the number of criminals."
"Rather say that this terror creates new criminals every day,"said Elias. "There are those who have become tulisanes for life. Afirst offence punished inhumanly, and the fear of further tortureseparates them forever from society and condemns them to kill or tobe killed. The terrorism of the Municipal Guard shuts the doors ofrepentance, and as a tulisan, defending himself in the mountains,fights to much better advantage than the soldier he mocks, we cannotremedy the evil we have made. Terrorism may serve when a people isenslaved, and the mountains have no caverns; but when a desperateman feels the strength of his arm, and anger possesses him, terrorismcannot put out the fire for which it has itself heaped the fuel."