CHAPTER XXXVI
WHAT PEOPLE SAY AND THINK.
Day dawned at last for the terrorized people. The streets in whichthe cuartel and the tribunal were situated were still deserted andsolitary. The houses showed no signs of life. However, a shutter wasopened with a creaking noise and an infant head stuck out and lookedin all directions.... Slap!... A sound announces hard contact betweena strip of leather and a human body. The child made a grimace, closedits eyes and disappeared. The shutter was closed again.
The example had been set. Without any doubt the opening and closing ofthe shutter has been heard, for another window was opened very slowlyand cautiously and a wrinkled and toothless old woman thrust out herhead. She was called Sister Rute. She looked about, knit her brows,spit noisily and then crossed herself. In the house opposite, a littlewindow was timidly opened and her friend, Sister Rufa appeared. Theylooked at each other for a moment, smiled, made some signals, andagain crossed themselves.
"Jesus! It was like a thanksgiving mass," said Sister Rufa.
"Since the time that Balat sacked the town I have never seen a nightlike it," replied Sister Pute.
"What a lot of shots! They say that it was old Pablo's gang."
"Tulisanes? It couldn't be. They say that it was the cuaderillerosagainst the Civil Guards. For this reason, they have arrested DonFilipo."
"Sanctus Deus! They say that there are no less than fourteen killed."
Other windows were opened and different faces appeared, exchangingsalutations and commenting on the affair.
In the light of the day--which promised to be a splendid one--couldbe seen in the distance, like ash-colored shadows, soldiers hurryingabout in confusion.
"There goes another corpse!" said some one from one of the windows.
"One? I see two."
"And so do I. But do you know what it was?" asked a man with acrafty face.
"Certainly. The cuaderilleros."
"No, Senor. An uprising at the cuartel."
"What uprising? The curate against the alferez?"
"No, nothing of the sort," said he who had asked the question. "TheChinese have risen in revolt."
And he closed his window again.
"The Chinese!" repeated all, with the greatest astonishment.
In a quarter of an hour other versions of the affair were incirculation. Ibarra, with his servants, it was said, had tried tosteal Maria Clara, and Captain Tiago, aided by the Guardia Civil haddefended her.
By this time the number of the dead was no longer fourteen, butthirty. Captain Tiago, it was said, was wounded and was going rightoff to Manila with his family.
The arrival of two cuaderilleros, carrying a human form in awheelbarrow, and followed by a Civil Guard, produced a greatsensation. It was supposed that they came from the convent. From theform of the feet which were hanging down, they tried to guess who itcould be. By half-past seven, when other Civil Guards arrived fromneighboring towns, the current version of the affair was alreadyclear and detailed.
"I have just come from the tribunal, where I have seen Don Filipoand Don Crisostomo prisoners," said a man to Sister Pute. "I talkedwith one of the cuaderilleros on guard. Well, Bruno, the son of theman who was whipped to death, made a declaration last night. As youknow, Captain Tiago is going to marry his daughter to a Spaniard. DonCrisostomo, offended, wanted to take revenge and tried to kill allthe Spaniards, even the curate. Last night they attacked the conventand the cuartel. Happily, by mercy of God, the curate was in CaptainTiago's house. They say that many escaped. The Civil Guards burnedDon Crisostomo's house, and if they had not taken him prisoner,they would have burned him, too."
"They burned the house?"
"All the servants were arrested. Why, you can still see the smokefrom here!" said the narrator, approaching the window. "Those whocome from there relate very sad things."
All looked toward the place indicated. A light column of smoke wasstill ascending to the heavens. All made comments more or less pious,more or less accusatory.
"Poor young man!" exclaimed an old man, the husband of Pute.
"Yes!" replied his wife. "But he did not order a mass for the soulof his father, who undoubtedly needs it more than others."
"But wife, you don't have any pity...."
"Sympathy for the excommunicated? It is a sin to have pity for theenemies of God, say the curates. Don't you remember? He ran over thesacred burial ground as if he were in a cattle pen."
"But a cattle pen and a cemetery are much alike," responded the oldman, "except that but one class of animals enter the cemetery."
"What!" cried Sister Pute. "Are you still going to defend him whomGod so clearly punishes? You will see that they will arrest you,too. You may support a falling house, if you want to!"
The husband became silent in view of this argument.
"Yes," continued the old woman, "after striking Father Damaso, therewas nothing left for him to do but to kill Father Salvi."
"But you can't deny that he was a good boy when he was a child."
"Yes, he was a good child," replied the old woman, "but he went toSpain. All those who go to Spain return heretics, so the curates say."
"Oh!" exclaimed the husband, seeing his revenge. "And the curate,and all the curates, and the Archbishops, and the Pope, and theVirgin--are they not Spaniards? Bah! Are they heretics, too? Bah!"
Happily for Sister Pute, the arrival of a servant, who rushed inconfused and pale, cut off the discussion.
"A man hanged in a neighboring orchard!" she exclaimed breathless.
"A man hanged!" exclaimed all, full of amazement.
The women crossed themselves. No one could stir.
"Yes, Senor," continued the servant, trembling. "I was going togather some peas in.... I looked into the orchard next door ... tosee if there ... I saw a man swinging.... I thought it was Teo ... Iwent nearer to gather peas, and I saw that it was not he but it wasanother, and was dead ... I ran, ran and...."
"Let us go and see it," said the old man, rising. "Take us there."
"Don't go!" cried Sister Pute, seizing him by the shirt.
"You'll get into trouble! He has hanged himself? Then all the worsefor him!"
"Let me see it, wife! Go to the tribunal, Juan, and report it. Perhapshe is not dead yet."
And he went ino[typo, should be into?] the orchard, followed by theservant, who kept hid behind him. The women and Sister Pute herselfcame along behind, full of terror and curiosity.
"There it is, Senor," said the servant stopping him and pointing withher finger.
The group stopped at a respectful distance, allowing the old man toadvance alone.
The body of a man, hanging from the limb of a santol tree, was swingingslowly in the breeze. The old man contemplated it for some time. Helooked at the rigid feet, the arms, the stained clothing and thedrooping head.
"We ought not to touch the corpse until some official has arrived,"said he, in a loud voice. "He is already stiff. He has been dead forsome time."
The women approached hesitatingly.
"It is the neighbor who lived in that little house; the one whoarrived only two weeks ago. Look at the scar on his face."
"Ave Maria!" exclaimed some of the women.
"Shall we pray for his soul?" asked a young girl as soon as she hadfinished looking at the dead body from all directions.
"You fool! You heretic!" Sister Pute scolded her. "Don't you know whatFather Damaso said? To pray for a damned person is to tempt God. He whocommits suicide is irrevocably condemned. For this reason, he cannotbe buried in a sacred place. I had begun to think that this man wasgoing to have a bad ending. I never could guess what he lived on."
"I saw him twice speaking with the sacristan mayor," observed a girl.
"It couldn't have been to confess himself or to order a mass!"
The neighbors gathered together and a large circle surrounded thecorpse which was still swinging. In half an hour some officers andtwo cuaderilleros arrived. They took t
he body down and put it ina wheelbarrow.
"Some people are in a hurry to die," said one of the officers,laughing, while he took out the pen from behind his ear.
He asked some trifling questions; took the declaration of the servant,whom he tried to implicate, now looking at her with evil in his eyes,now threatening her and now attributing to her words which she didnot say--so much so that the servant, believing that she was goingto be taken to jail, began to weep and finished by declaring thatshe was looking for peas, but that ... and she called Teo to witness.
In the meantime, a peasant with a wide hat and a large plaster onhis neck, was examining the body, and the rope by which it was hanging.
The face was no more livid than the rest of the body. Above therope could be seen two scars and two small bruises. Where the ropehad rubbed, there was no blood and the skin was white. The curiouspeasant examined closely the camisa and the pantaloons. He noted thatthey were full of dust and recently torn in some places. But what mostattracted his attention were the "stick-tights" [22] on his clothing,even up to his neck.
"What do you see?" asked the officer.
"I was trying to identify him, senor," stammered the peasant, loweringhis hat further from his uncovered head.
"But haven't you heard that it was one Lucas? Were you sleeping?"
All began to laugh. The peasant, embarrassed, muttered a few words,and went away with head down, walking slowly.
"Here! Where are you going?" cried the old man. "You can't get outthat way. That's the way to the dead man's house."
"That fellow is still asleep," said the officer with a jeer. "We'llhave to throw some water on him!"
Those standing around laughed again.
The peasant left the place where he had played so poor a part anddirected his steps toward the church. In the sacristy, he asked forthe sacristan mayor.
"He is still sleeping!" they replied gruffly. "Don't you know thatthey sacked the convent last night?"
"I will wait till he awakes."
The sacristans looked at him with that rudeness characteristic ofpeople who are in the habit of being ill-treated.
In a dark corner, the one-eyed sacristan mayor was sleeping in alarge chair. His spectacles were across his forehead among his longlocks of hair. His squalid, bony breast was bare, and rose and fellwith regularity.
The peasant sat down near by, disposed to wait patiently, but acoin fell on the floor and he began looking for it with the aid of acandle, under the sacristan mayor's big chair. The peasant also noted"stick-tights" on the sleeping man's pantaloons and on the arms ofhis camisa. The sacristan awoke at last, rubbed his good eye, and,in a very bad humor, reproached the man.
"I would like to order a mass said, senor," replied he in a toneof excuse.
"They have already finished all the masses," said the one-eyed man,softening his accent a little. "If you want it for to-morrow.... Isit for souls in Purgatory?"
"No, senor;" replied the peasant, giving him a peso.
And looking fixedly in his one eye, he added:
"It is for a person who is going to die soon." And he left thesacristy. "I could have seized him last night," he added, sighinglyas he removed the plaster from his neck. And he straightened up andregained the stature and appearance of Elias.