It was his destiny to be betrayed and lied to. He went forth with the faith of the Government pledged to his safety. No sooner had the ship that bore him from Hong-Kong hoisted her anchors than the Spanish consul cabled to Governor-General Despujol that the victim was in the trap; [165] whereupon in Manila an accusation was filed against him of treason and sacrilege. It appeared that Rizal’s forebodings about his fate were not fanciful; he was going into a den of wolves. When he and his sister landed at Manila, a customs officer searched their baggage and pretended to find among Lucia’s possessions a package of treasonable documents. The device is as old as tyranny and must have suggested to La Fontaine one of his most famous fables. Here is the officer showing certain papers and saying he found them in this trunk or that valise. Who is to gainsay him? The victim protests that she never saw the documents before. What is her statement worth against the skilled vociferations of the officer? Rizal was right. In a country operated as Spain operated the Philippines every man’s life was at the mercy of any power that was able and wished to take it. [166] In this instance the treasonable stuff was found, official superservice asserted, in certain pillow-cases that Lucia had in her trunk. When all was done, it consisted of a brief circular or tract entitled “The Poor Friars.” Among reasoning men and enlightened systems of society, treason is held to be a crime directed against Government; other offenses may be committed by individuals against individuals, but for these the police and the ordinary criminal code are enough. The incendiary document Lucia was alleged to have brought in said nothing against the Government. This is the fact that will strike the modern reader as strangest of all. How can there be other treason or other sedition than against Government? Yet in all this document is not a word against anybody or thing except the friars and even as to the friars speaks of but one order, and that in terms adults might smile at but assuredly would never care to reread. Lest it should be thought that any part of the description of the Insular Government attempted in these pages is extravagant, here is the whole of this ferocious document: POOR FRIARS A bank has just suspended payment; the New Oriental has just become bankrupt. Great losses in India. In the Island of Mauritius, to the South of Africa [sic], cyclones and tempests have laid waste its riches, swallowing more than 36,000,000 pesos. These 36,000,000 represented the hopes, the savings, the well-being, and the future of numerous individuals and families.