One fact about the matter and only one seems reasonably certain. If Rizal had signed any document that could have been of the slightest use to the governing Interests it would have been exhibited and used at that time so perilous to Spain. A great rebellion was on; the immediate impulse to it was resentment against the ill treatment of Rizal and the inspiration of freedom. Anything in the nature of a retraction from him would have been worth to the Spanish cause more than the strength of many brigades. The mysterious document he was alleged to have signed has mysteriously disappeared. The friars said they took it to the Ateneo, and thence sent it by messenger to the archbishop, to be deposited in the archiepiscopal records. There all trace of it was lost—if there ever was such a paper. It was for Spain, if these accounts have any truth, the most valuable thing in all the Philippines, and the cunning persons that had (again by these accounts) produced a jewel of such price immediately allowed it to slip into the gutter. Not unless they had all gone mad. The whole subject, which might well be considered as extraneous to the real significance of Rizal’s life and death, was revived in 1920 by the appearance in Barcelona of a brochure by Gonzalo M. Piñana entitled “Murió el Doctor Rizal Cristianamente?” (Did Doctor Rizal Die a Christian?), with the subtitle of “Reconstruction of the Last Hours of his Life: a Historical Study.” Unfortunately, the book renewed a futile discussion without adding a line to the available information about it. Mr. Piñana gathered the newspaper reports current at the time of Rizal’s death, used the statements of the friars already discredited, and reprinted the assertions that for twenty-four years had been made on one side and repudiated on the other. He satisfied himself that Rizal died a Christian, but everybody else had long before been satisfied of that fact. But while he added nothing to the store of human wisdom on these subjects, Mr. Piñana reminds us of an incident that is well worth preserving. Among the persons moved by the tragedy to sympathy with the condemned man was the attorney-general of the Philippines, Señor Castaño, who said to him: “Rizal, you love passionately your mother and your country. Both are Catholic. Do you not think it will be very hard for you to die outside of their chosen religion?” To which Rizal replied: “Mr. Attorney-General, you may be sure that I have no intention of closing the gates of eternity upon myself.” Piñana, p. 79. [220] Craig, p. 240. [221] Retana, p. 428. [222] Clifford, in “Blackwood’s Magazine.” [223] Retana, p. 429. [224] Retana, p. 431; Craig, p. 248. The details of the last scene in Retana’s account followed here were supplied to him by Dr. Saura, who said he followed the death-march and tried to hear all that was said. [225] Foreman, “The Philippine Islands.” p. 386.