The remarks about the rebellion are from a photographic copy of the pencil notes used by Rizal for his brief speech. The manuscript is now in the possession of Sr. Eduardo Lete, of Saragossa, Spain. I had no notice at all of what was being planned until the first or second of July, in 1896, when Pio Valenzuela came to see me, saying that an uprising was being arranged. I told him that it was absurd, etc., etc. and he answered me that they could bear no more. I advised him that they should have patience, etc., etc. He added then that he had been sent because they had compassion of my life and that probably it would compromise me. I replied that they should have patience and that if anything happened to me I would then prove my innocence. "Besides, said I, don't consider me but our country which is the one that will suffer." I went on to show how absurd was the movement.--This later Pio Valenzuela testified.--He did not tell me that my name was being used, neither did he suggest that I was its chief, nor anything of that sort. Those who testify that I am the chief (which I do not know nor do I know of having ever treated with them), what proofs do they present of my having accepted this chiefship or that I was in relations with them or with their society? Either they have made use of my name for their own purposes or they have been deceived by others who have. Where is the chief who dictates no order nor makes any arrangement, who is not consulted in any way about so important an enterprise until the last moment, and then, when he decides against it, is disobeyed? Since the seventh of July of 1892 I have entirely ceased political activity. It seems some have wished to avail themselves of my name for their own ends. A plant I am, that scarcely grown, Was torn from out its Eastern bed, Where all around perfume is shed, And life but as a dream is known; The land that I can call my own, By me forgotten ne'er to be, Where trilling birds their song taught me, And cascades with their ceaseless roar, And all along the spreading shore The murmurs of the sounding sea. While yet in childhood's happy day, I learned upon its sun to smile, And in my breast there seemed the while Seething volcanic fires to play; A bard I was, and my wish alway To call upon the fleeting wind, With all the force of verse and mind: "Go forth, and spread around its fame, From zone to zone with glad acclaim, And earth to heaven together bind!" From "Mi Piden Versos" (1882), verses from Madrid for his mother.