“You may say [the pilot goes on] that you are only slightly acquainted with your country, and I believe you. You don’t see the struggle that is preparing; you don’t see the cloud on the horizon. The fight is beginning in the sphere of ideas, to descend later into the arena, which will be dyed with blood. I hear the voice of God—woe unto them who would oppose it! For them history has not been written!” No one can believe Rizal wrote this without feeling it in his heart and soul. Elias was transfigured; standing uncovered, with his manly face illuminated by the moon, there was something extraordinary about him. He shook his long hair and went on: “Don’t you see how everything is awakening? The sleep has lasted for centuries, but one day the thunderbolt struck, and, in striking, infused life.” He means the slaying of the guiltless priests, Fathers Burgos, Gomez, and Zamora, victims to the homicidal mania that descended upon the Government after the revolt of 1872. “Since then [the pilot continues] new tendencies are stirring our spirits, and these tendencies, to-day scattered, will some day be united, guided by the God who has not failed other peoples, and who will not fail us, for his cause is the cause of liberty!” [76] The trap the friars have prepared for Ibarra is a thing infamous in Philippine history, and yet so common that in fact and not in fiction it has sent scores of innocent men to their deaths. It had never been known to fail. Agents provocateurs stage a pretended revolt. Nothing is easier; the materials are always to hand; likewise the occasion. It is but necessary to take the latest outrage by the Civil Guard and stir some one to object to it. The rest follows automatically. In this instance Ibarra is the pretended instigator, although he has never heard of the wrong he is supposed to resent.