الفصل الفصل 32 · EFFECT OF THE PASQUINADES

As a result of the events narrated, many mothers ordered their sons

immediately to leave off their studies and devote themselves to

idleness or to agriculture. When the examinations came, suspensions

were plentiful, and he was a rare exception who finished the course, if

he had belonged to the famous association, to which no one paid any

more attention. Pecson, Tadeo, and Juanito Pelaez were all alike

suspended—the first receiving his dismissal with his foolish grin and

declaring his intention of becoming an officer in some court, while

Tadeo, with his eternal holiday realized at last, paid for an

illumination and made a bonfire of his books. Nor did the others get

off much better, and at length they too had to abandon their studies,

to the great satisfaction of their mothers, who always fancy their sons

hanged if they should come to understand what the books teach. Juanito

Pelaez alone took the blow ill, since it forced him to leave school for

his father’s store, with whom he was thenceforward to be associated in

the business: the rascal found the store much less entertaining, but

after some time his friends again noticed his hump appear, a symptom

that his good humor was returning. The rich Makaraig, in view of the

catastrophe, took good care not to expose himself, and having secured a

passport by means of money set out in haste for Europe. It was said

that his Excellency, the Captain-General, in his desire to do good by

good means, and careful of the interests of the Filipinos, hindered the

departure of every one who could not first prove substantially that he

had the money to spend and could live in idleness in European cities.

Among our acquaintances those who got off best were Isagani and

Sandoval: the former passed in the subject he studied under Padre

Fernandez and was suspended in the others, while the latter was able to

confuse the examining-board with his oratory.

Basilio was the only one who did not pass in any subject, who was not

suspended, and who did not go to Europe, for he remained in Bilibid

prison, subjected every three days to examinations, almost always the

same in principle, without other variation than a change of

inquisitors, since it seemed that in the presence of such great guilt

all gave up or fell away in horror. And while the documents moldered or

were shifted about, while the stamped papers increased like the

plasters of an ignorant physician on the body of a hypochondriac,

Basilio became informed of all the details of what had happened in

Tiani, of the death of Juli and the disappearance of Tandang Selo.

Sinong, the abused cochero, who had driven him to San Diego, happened

to be in Manila at that time and called to give him all the news.

Meanwhile, Simoun had recovered his health, or so at least the

newspapers said. Ben-Zayb rendered thanks to “the Omnipotent who

watches over such a precious life,” and manifested the hope that the

Highest would some day reveal the malefactor, whose crime remained

unpunished, thanks to the charity of the victim, who was too closely

following the words of the Great Martyr: Father, forgive them, for they

know not what they do. These and other things Ben-Zayb said in print,

while by mouth he was inquiring whether there was any truth in the

rumor that the opulent jeweler was going to give a grand fiesta, a

banquet such as had never before been seen, in part to celebrate his

recovery and in part as a farewell to the country in which he had

increased his fortune. It was whispered as certain that Simoun, who

would have to leave with the Captain-General, whose command expired in

May, was making every effort to secure from Madrid an extension, and

that he was advising his Excellency to start a campaign in order to

have an excuse for remaining, but it was further reported that for the

first time his Excellency had disregarded the advice of his favorite,

making it a point of honor not to retain for a single additional day

the power that had been conferred upon him, a rumor which encouraged

belief that the fiesta announced would take place; very soon. For the

rest, Simoun remained unfathomable, since he had become very

uncommunicative, showed himself seldom, and smiled mysteriously when

the rumored fiesta was mentioned.

“Come, Señor Sindbad,” Ben-Zayb had once rallied him, “dazzle us with

something Yankee! You owe something to this country.”

“Doubtless!” was Simoun’s response, with a dry smile.

“You’ll throw the house wide open, eh?”

“Maybe, but as I have no house—”

“You ought to have secured Capitan Tiago’s, which Señor Pelaez got for

nothing.”

Simoun became silent, and from that time on he was often seen in the

store of Don Timoteo Pelaez, with whom it was said he had entered into

partnership. Some weeks afterward, in the month of April, it was

rumored that Juanito Pelaez, Don Timoteo’s son, was going to marry

Paulita Gomez, the girl coveted by Spaniards and foreigners.

“Some men are lucky!” exclaimed other envious merchants. “To buy a

house for nothing, sell his consignment of galvanized iron well, get

into partnership with a Simoun, and marry his son to a rich

heiress—just say if those aren’t strokes of luck that all honorable men

don’t have!”

“If you only knew whence came that luck of Señor Pelaez’s!” another

responded, in a tone which indicated that the speaker did know. “It’s

also assured that there’ll be a fiesta and on a grand scale,” was added

with mystery.

It was really true that Paulita was going to marry Juanito Pelaez. Her

love for Isagani had gradually waned, like all first loves based on

poetry and sentiment. The events of the pasquinades and the

imprisonment of the youth had shorn him of all his charms. To whom

would it have occurred to seek danger, to desire to share the fate of

his comrades, to surrender himself, when every one was hiding and

denying any complicity in the affair? It was quixotic, it was madness

that no sensible person in Manila could pardon, and Juanito was quite

right in ridiculing him, representing what a sorry figure he cut when

he went to the Civil Government. Naturally, the brilliant Paulita could

no longer love a young man who so erroneously understood social matters

and whom all condemned. Then she began to reflect. Juanito was clever,

capable, gay, shrewd, the son of a rich merchant of Manila, and a

Spanish mestizo besides—if Don Timoteo was to be believed, a

full-blooded Spaniard. On the other hand, Isagani was a provincial

native who dreamed of forests infested with leeches, he was of doubtful

family, with a priest for an uncle, who would perhaps be an enemy to

luxury and balls, of which she was very fond. One beautiful morning

therefore it occurred to her that she had been a downright fool to

prefer him to his rival, and from that time on Pelaez’s hump steadily

increased. Unconsciously, yet rigorously, Paulita was obeying the law

discovered by Darwin, that the female surrenders herself to the fittest

male, to him who knows how to adapt himself to the medium in which he

lives, and to live in Manila there was no other like Pelaez, who from

his infancy had had chicanery at his finger-tips. Lent passed with its

Holy Week, its array of processions and pompous displays, without other

novelty than a mysterious mutiny among the artillerymen, the cause of

which was never disclosed. The houses of light materials were torn down

in the presence of a troop of cavalry, ready to fall upon the owners in

case they should offer resistance. There was a great deal of weeping

and many lamentations, but the affair did not get beyond that. The

curious, among them Simoun, went to see those who were left homeless,

walking about indifferently and assuring each other that thenceforward

they could sleep in peace.

Towards the end of April, all the fears being now forgotten, Manila was

engrossed with one topic: the fiesta that Don Timoteo Pelaez was going

to celebrate at the wedding of his son, for which the General had

graciously and condescendingly agreed to be the patron. Simoun was

reported to have arranged the matter. The ceremony would be solemnized

two days before the departure of the General, who would honor the house

and make a present to the bridegroom. It was whispered that the jeweler

would pour out cascades of diamonds and throw away handfuls of pearls

in honor of his partner’s son, thus, since he could hold no fiesta of

his own, as he was a bachelor and had no house, improving the

opportunity to dazzle the Filipino people with a memorable farewell.

All Manila prepared to be invited, and never did uneasiness take

stronger hold of the mind than in view of the thought of not being

among those bidden. Friendship with Simoun became a matter of dispute,

and many husbands were forced by their wives to purchase bars of steel

and sheets of galvanized iron in order to make friends with Don Timoteo

Pelaez.