XXXVIII.--The Two Women 170 XXXIX.--The Outlawed 176 XL.--The Enigma 181 XLI.--The Voice of the Persecuted 183 XLII.--The Family of Elias 187 XLIII.--Il Buon di si Conosce da Mattina 193 XLIV.--La Gallera 196 XLV.--A Call 201 XLVI.--A Conspiracy 204 XLVII.--The Catastrophe 208 XLVIII.--Gossip 212 XLIX.--Vae Victis 217 L.--Accurst 221 LI.--Patriotism and Interest 224 LII.--Marie Clara Marries 232 LIII.--The Chase on the Lake 242 LIV.--Father Damaso Explains Himself 247 LV.--The Nochebuena 251 INTRODUCTION JOSE RIZAL In that horrible drama, the Philippine revolution, one man of the purest and noblest character stands out pre-eminently--Jose Rizal--poet, artist, philologue, novelist, above all, patriot; his influence might have changed the whole course of events in the islands, had not a blind and stupid policy brought about the crime of his death. This man, of almost pure Tagalo race, was born in 1861, at Calamba, in the island of Luzon, on the southern shore of the Laguna de Bay, where he grew up in his father's home, under the tutorage of a wise and learned native priest, Leontio. The child's fine nature, expanding in the troublous latter days of a long race bondage, was touched early with the fire of genuine patriotism. He was eleven when the tragic consequences of the Cavite insurrection destroyed any lingering illusions of his people, and stirred in them a spirit that has not yet been allayed. The rising at Cavite, like many others in the islands, was a protest against the holding of benefices by friars--a thing forbidden by a decree of the Council of Trent, but authorized in the Philippines, by papal bulls, until such time as there should be a sufficiency of native priests. This time never came. As the friars held the best agricultural lands, and had a voice--and that the most authoritative--in civil affairs, there developed in the rural districts a veritable feudal system, bringing in its train the arrogance and tyranny that like conditions develop. It became impossible for the civil authorities to carry out measures in opposition to the friars. "The Government is an arm, the head is the convent," says the old philosopher of Rizal's story.