[39] With a girl older than he was and already engaged to another. She seems to have been something of a flirt. A few years afterward he wrote (apparently for himself) an account of his feelings and sufferings in those days. Mariano Ponce, his friend and confidant, published the document in the “Revista Filipina,” December, 1916. It shows Rizal to have been a poetical and dreamy lover. When he discovered the hopeless nature of his attachment he wandered alone in the woods, given up to a melancholy conviction of misfortune, but recovered in time to fall in love again and learn the reality of his forebodings. [40] The professor speaks these words in the vulgar dialect. [41] “El Filibusterismo,” Chap. XIII. Derbyshire’s translation. [42] “Boyhood Story”: v. [43] Craig, p. 92. [44] These poems are printed by Retana, pp. 26–29. A translation of one of them is attempted for the first time in the Appendix A of this work. [45] London, 1875. [46] Craig, p. 95. [47] Craig, pp. 696–98. [48] Rizal’s “Boyhood Story.” [49] Retana, p. 31. [50] See Appendix A. [51] Craig, pp. 109–110. [52] “Fair hope of my fatherland.” [53] See Appendix A. [54] Craig, p. 109. [55] It was founded in 1603, only thirty-three years after the capture of Manila and the beginning of the Spanish domination. [56] Retana. [57] Craig, p. 109; Retana, pp. 34–35. [58] His father’s sore difficulties, to be described later, were then beginning. Mr. Mercado continued to send money regularly to José through Mr. Rivera, the detour being necessary to protect himself. [59] Craig, p. 111; Retana, pp. 56 and 57. [60] Craig, p. 117; Retana, p. 59; Derbyshire, p. xxvii. [61] While he was in the Philippines on the occasion of his first return there, 1887, he had with him a considerable collection of books in many languages but scarcely any in Spanish. A friend once called his attention to this fact and asked why he omitted Spanish books. “Well,” said Rizal, in his quiet way but with a twinkle in his eyes, “if they can’t read them they will not borrow them, will they?” [62] Fernando Canon, Manila “Citizen,” December 31, 1921. [63] Craig, p. 99. [64] Craig, p. 76. [65] Senator Sandiko’s recollections. [66] Retana, p. 99. [67] Craig, p. 126; Retana, pp. 103–105. [68] For example, “The Flowers of Heidelberg,” printed in “La Solidaridad,” December 15, 1889. [69] Mr. Derbyshire, a discriminating critic, calls it “a story pulsating with life.” [70] Compare Derbyshire, p. xxxi. [71] “Noli Me Tangere,” Chaps. LII and LVII. [72] To western readers this will seem impossible. There are, however, attested instances of the savage practice. [73] A vein of strange coincidence that seems almost like some intuition runs through Rizal’s novels. What happened to the ashes of the elder Ibarra in the story is exactly what happened a few years later to the ashes of Rizal’s brother-in-law.