CHAPTER XL
THE PURSUIT ON THE LAKE.
"Listen, Senor, to my plan," said Elias, as they directed the banca
toward San Miguel. "I will for the present hide you in the house of
my friend in Mandaluyong. I will bring you all your money, which I
have saved and kept for you at the foot of the old baliti tree, in
the mysterious tomb of your grandfather. You shall leave the country."
"To go to a strange land?" interrupted Ibarra.
"To live in peace the remaining days of your life. You have friends
in Spain, you are rich, you can get yourself pardoned. By all means,
a foreign land is better for you than your own country."
Crisostomo did not reply. He meditated in silence.
Just then they reached the Pasig and the banca was headed up the
stream. Over the Bridge of Spain a horse-man was galloping at high
speed, and a prolonged, sharp whistle was heard.
"Elias," replied Ibarra, "you owe your misfortunes to my family;
you have saved my life twice; I owe you not only gratitude, but also
restitution of your fortune. You advise me to go to a foreign land
and live; then come with me and we will live like brothers. Here,
you, too, are miserable."
Elias sadly replied:
"Impossible! It is true that I can neither love nor be happy in
my country; but I can suffer and die in it, and perhaps die for
it; that would be something. Let my country's misfortune be my own
misfortune. Since no noble thought unites us, and since our hearts do
not beat in harmony at the mention of a single word, at least, let a
common misery unite me to my fellow countrymen; at least, let me weep
with them over our grief; let the same misery oppress all our hearts."
"Then why do you advise me to leave?"
"Because in other lands you can be happy, and I cannot; because you
are not made to suffer, and because you would hate your country,
if some day you should see the cause of your misfortune: and to hate
one's own country is the greatest misery."
"You are unjust to me," exclaimed Ibarra, with bitter reproach. "You
forget that I have scarcely arrived here, and that I have already
sought its welfare."
"Do not be offended, Senor. I am not reproaching you. Would to God
that all might imitate you. But I do not ask for the impossible and
you should not be offended if I tell you that your heart deceives
you. You love your country because your father has taught you to
love it; you love it because you had in it your love, your fortune,
your youth; because it smiled on you, and because it has not until now
done you an injustice. You love your country as we all love that which
makes us happy. But, on that day when you see yourself poor, ragged,
hungry, persecuted, denounced and betrayed by your very countrymen,
on that day you will curse yourself, your country and all."
"Your words grieve me," said Ibarra, resentfully.
Elias bowed his head, meditated and replied:
"I wish to set you right, Senor, and to avoid a miserable future for
you. You remember the time when I was talking to you in this same
banca and under the light of the same moon. It was a month ago, a few
days more or less. Then you were happy. The plea of the unfortunates
did not reach you. You disdained their complaints because they were
complaints from criminals. You gave ear to their enemies, and, in
spite of my reasons and pleas, you put yourself on the side of their
oppressors. On you depended at that time whether I should turn criminal
or allow my life to be taken in fulfillment of my sacred pledge. God
has not permitted it, because the old chief of the bandits has been
killed. A month has passed and now you think differently."
"You are right, Elias, but man is influenced by changes in
circumstances. Then I was blind, and obstinate. What did I know? Now
misfortune has torn the veil from my eyes. The solitude and misery of
my prison life have taught me; now I see the horrible cancer which
is sapping the life of society, which hangs to its flesh and which
requires violent extirpation. They have opened my eyes; they have
made me see the ulcer; they force me to become a criminal. I will
be a filibustero, but a true filibustero. I will call upon all the
unfortunates, on all who have beating hearts within their breasts, on
all who sent you to me... No, no! I will not be criminal! It is never
a crime to fight for one's country! We for three centuries have given
them our hand, we have asked them for their love, we have anxiously
wished to call them our brothers. How have they replied? With insults
and jests, denying us even the quality of being human beings. There
is no God, there is no hope, there is no humanity. There is nothing
but the right of force."
Ibarra was excited. His whole body was trembling.
They passed by the Governor General's palace, and believed they saw
agitation and movement among the guards.
"Have they discovered our flight?" murmured Elias. "Lie down, Senor,
so that I can cover you up with the grass, for, when we cross over
to the side of the river near the powder house, the sentry may be
surprised at seeing two of us in this small banca."
As Elias had foreseen, the sentry stopped him and asked him where he
came from.
"From Manila, with grass for the magistrates and curates," replied he,
imitating the accent of one from Pandakan.
A sergeant came out and was informed what was going on.
"Sulung!" (Go on!) said he. "I warn you not to receive any one in
your banca. A prisoner has just escaped. If you capture him and hand
him over to me I will give you a good reward."
"All right, Senor. What is his description?"
"He wears a frock coat and speaks Spanish. With that much, be on
the watch!"
The banca went on. Elias turned his face and saw the shadow of the
sentry, still standing on the bank of the river.
"We will lose several minutes," said he, in a low voice. "We will
have to go up the Beata river in order to carry out my pretense of
being from Pena Francia."
The town was sleeping in the light of the moon. Crisostomo arose to
admire the sepulchral peace of Nature. The river was narrow and its
banks formed a plain planted with rice.
Elias threw the load on the bank, picked up a piece of bamboo and
drew out from under the grass in the banca some empty sacks. They
went on rowing.
"You are master of your own will, Senor, and of your own future,"
said he to Crisostomo, who kept silent. "But if you will permit
me to offer a suggestion, I say to you: Look well at what you are
going to do. You are about to start a war, for you have money,
talent, and you will quickly find aid, for, unfortunately, many
are discontented. Furthermore, in this fight, which you are to
begin, those who are going to suffer most are the defenseless, the
innocent. The same sentiments which a month ago prompted me to come
to you and ask for reforms, are those which now move me to ask you to
reflect. The country, Senor, is not thinking of separating itself from
the mother country. It asks only a little liberty, a little justice,
a little love. The discontented will assist you, the criminals and the
desperate, but the people will hold aloof. You are mistaken if, seeing
everything dark, you believe that the country is desperate. The country
suffers, yes, but it still hopes, believe me, and will only rise in
revolt when it has lost patience; that is, when those who govern wish
it-which is still far off. I myself would not follow you. I shall
never take recourse to these extreme remedies while I see hope in men."
"Then I will go without you!" replied Crisostomo, resolutely.
"Is it your firm decision?"
"Yes, my firm and only decision: I call to witness the memory of my
father! I cannot allow them to deprive me of peace and happiness with
impunity, I who have desired only my country's welfare, I who have
respected all and have suffered on account of a hypocritical religion,
on account of love for my country. How have they responded to me? By
burying me in an infamous prison and by prostituting my fiancee. No,
not to avenge myself would be a crime. It would be encouraging
them to commit new injustices. No! it would be cowardice, it would
be pusillanimity to weep and groan while there is life and vigor,
when to insult and challenge are added scoffery and contemptuous
ridicule! I will arouse this ignorant people, I will make them see
their misery-this people who do not think of each other as brothers,
who are mere wolves devouring each other. I will tell them to rise
against this oppression and appeal to the eternal right of mankind
to conquer their liberty!"
"Innocent people will suffer."
"All the better! Can you lead me to the mountain?"
"Till you are safe!" replied Elias.
They again went up the Pasig. They spoke from time to time of
indifferent things.
"Santa Ana!" murmured Ibarra. "Do you recognize that house?"
They passed by the country house of the Jesuits.
"There I passed many happy and joyful years!" sighed Elias. "In my time
we used to come here every month ... then I was like the others. I had
fortune, family; I was dreaming and planning a future for myself. In
those days I used to visit my sister in the neighboring convent. She
made me a present of a piece of her own handiwork. A girl friend used
to accompany her, a beautiful girl. All has passed like a dream."
They remained silent till they arrived at Malapad-na-bato. Those who
have glided over the bosom of the Pasig on one of those magical nights
when the moon pours forth its melancholy poetry from the pure blue of
the sky, when the darkness hides the misery of men and silence drowns
the harsh accents of their voices, when Nature alone speaks-those
who have seen such nights on the Pasig will understand the feelings
which filled the hearts of both young men.
In Malapad-na-bato the carbineer was half asleep, and, seeing that the
banca was empty and offered no booty for him to seize, according to
the traditional custom of his corps and the use made of that position,
he readily let them pass on.
Nor did the Civil Guard at Pasig suspect anything, and they were
not molested.
It was just beginning to dawn when they reached the lake, calm and
smooth as a gigantic mirror. The moon was growing dim and the Orient
was rosy with the tints of morning. At a distance, a mass of grey
could be discerned advancing toward the banca.
"The falua (or Government steamboat) is coming," murmured Elias. "Lie
down and I will cover you with these sacks."
The outline of the vessel became more clear and perceptible.
"She is putting in between the beach and us," observed Elias uneasily.
And then he changed the course of the banca a little, rowing toward
Binangonan. To his great surprise he noticed that the falua was also
changing its course, while a voice cried out to him.
Elias stopped and meditated. The shore of the lake was very far off,
and they would soon be in the range of the rifles on the falua. He
thought of returning to the Pasig. His banca was swifter than the
falua. But fate was against him! Another boat was coming up the
Pasig, and they could see the helmets and shining bayonets of the
Civil Guards.
"We are caught!" he murmured, turning pale.
He looked at his robust arms and taking the only course which remained
to him, he began to row with all his strength toward the Island of
Talim. In the meantime, the sun had risen.
The banca glided along rapidly. Elias saw some men standing up on
the falua, making signals to him.
"Do you know how to manage a banca?" he asked Ibarra.
"Yes; why?"
"Because we are lost if I do not leap into the water and make them
lose the trail. They will follow me. I swim and dive well... I will
take them away from you, and then you can save yourself."
"No; you remain and we will sell our lives dearly."
"Useless! We have no arms, and with those rifles they will kill us
like birds."
At that moment a chiss was heard in the water like the fall of a hot
body, and was followed immediately by a report.
"Do you see?" said Elias, putting his paddle in the banca. "We will
see each other again at the tomb of your grandfather on Nochebeuna
(Christmas eve.) Save yourself."
"And you?"
"God has taken me through greater dangers."
Elias took off his camisa. A ball grazed his hands and the report
sounded out. Without being disturbed, he stretched out his hand to
Ibarra, who was still in the bottom of the boat. Then he arose and
leaped into the water, pushing away the small craft with his foot.
A number of cries were heard. Soon at some distance the head of the
young man appeared above the water as if to get breath, dropping out
of sight at the next instant.
"There, there he is!" cried a number of voices, and the balls from
their rifles whistled again.
The falua and the other banca took up the chase. A light track of foam
marked his course, every moment leading farther and farther away from
Ibarra's banca, which drifted along as if abandoned. Every time that
the swimmer raised his head to breathe the Civil Guards and the men
on board the falua discharged their guns at him.
The pursuit continued. Ibarra's little banca was already far off. The
swimmer was approaching the shore of the lake and was now some fifty
yards distant from it. The rowers were already tired, but Elias was
not, for his head often appeared above the water and each time in a
different direction so as to disconcert his pursuers. No longer was
there a light trail to betray the course of the diver. For the last
time they saw him near the shore, some ten yards off, and they opened
fire... Then minutes and minutes passed. Nothing appeared again on
the tranquil surface of the lake.
Half an hour afterward one of the rowers pretended to have discovered
signs of blood in the water near the shore, but his companions shook
their heads in a manner which might mean either yes or no.