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Read Ebook: An Eagle Flight: A Filipino Novel Adapted from Noli Me Tangere by Rizal Jos
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Ebook has 1205 lines and 38963 words, and 25 pages
the date of the f?te, but before using it His Excellency pronounced a short allocution in Castilian.
"Citizens of San Diego," he said, "we have the honor of presiding at a ceremony whose importance you know without explanations. We are founding a school, and the school is the basis of society, the book wherein is written the future of each race.
"Citizens of San Diego! Thank God, who has given you these priests! Thank the Mother Country, who spreads civilization in these fertile isles and protects them with the covering of her glorious mantle. Thank God, again, who has enlightened you by his priests from his divine Word.
"And now that the first stone of this building has been blessed, we, the alcalde of this province, in the name of His Majesty the King, whom God guard; in the name of the illustrious Spanish Government, and under the protection of its spotless and ever-victorious flag, consecrate this act and begin the building of this school!
"Citizens of San Diego, long live the king! Long live Spain! Long live the religious orders! Long live the Catholic church!"
"Long live the Se?or Alcalde!" replied many voices.
Then the high official descended majestically, to the strains of the orchestras, put his trowel of cement on the stone, and came back as majestically as he had gone down.
The Government clerks applauded.
Ibarra offered the trowel to the curate, who descended slowly in his turn. In the middle of the staircase he raised his eyes to the great stone suspended above, but he stopped only a second, and continued the descent. This time the applause was a little warmer, Captain Tiago and the monks adding theirs to that of the clerks.
The notary followed. He gallantly offered the trowel to Maria Clara, but she refused, with a smile. The monks, the alf?rez, and others descended in turn, Captain Tiago not being forgotten.
Ibarra was left. He had ordered the stone to be lowered when the curate remembered him.
"You do not put on your trowelful, Se?or Ibarra?" said the curate, with a familiar and jocular air.
"I should be Juan Palomo, who made the soup and then ate it," replied Cris?stomo in the same light tone.
"You go down, of course," said the alcalde, taking him by the arm in friendly fashion. "If not, I shall order that the stone be kept suspended, and we shall stay here till the Day of Judgment!"
Such a menace forced Ibarra to obey. He exchanged the silver trowel for a larger one of iron, as some people noticed, and started out calmly. Elias gave him an indefinable look; his whole being seemed in it. The Mongol's eyes were on the abyss at his feet.
Ibarra, after glancing rapidly at the block over his head, at Elias, and at the Mongol, said to Se?or Juan, in a voice that trembled:
"Give me the tray and bring me the other trowel."
He stood alone. Elias no longer looked at him, his eyes were riveted on the hands of the Mongol, who, bending over, was anxiously following the movements of Ibarra. Then the sound of Ibarra's trowel was heard, accompanied by the low murmur of the clerks' voices as they felicitated the alcalde on his speech.
Suddenly a frightful noise rent the air. A pulley attached to the base of the crane sprang out, dragging after it the capstan, which struck the crane like a lever. The beams tottered, the cables broke, and the whole fabric collapsed with a deafening roar and in a whirlwind of dust.
A thousand voices filled the place with cries of horror. People fled in all directions. Only Maria Clara and Brother Salvi remained where they were, pale, mute, incapable of motion.
As the cloud of dust thinned, Ibarra was seen upright among the beams, joists and cables, between the capstan and the great stone that had fallen. He still held the trowel in his hand. With eyes frightful to look at, he regarded a corpse half buried under the beams at his feet.
"Are you unhurt? Are you alive? For God's sake, speak!" cried some one at last.
"A miracle! A miracle!" cried others.
"Come, take out the body of this man," said Ibarra, as if waking from a dream. At the sound of his voice Maria Clara would have fallen but for the arms of her friends.
Then everything was confusion. All talked at once, gestured, went hither and thither, and knew not what to do.
"Who is killed?" demanded the alf?rez.
"Arrest the head builder!" were the first words the alcalde could pronounce.
They brought up the body and examined it. It was that of the Mongol. The heart no longer beat.
The priests shook Ibarra's hand, and warmly congratulated him.
"When I think that I was there a moment before!" said one of the clerks.
"It is well they gave the trowel to you instead of me," said a trembling old man.
"Don Pascal!" cried some of the Spaniards.
"Se?ores, the Se?or Ibarra lives, while I, if I had not been crushed, should have died of fright."
Ibarra had been to inform himself of Maria Clara.
"Let the f?te continue, Se?or Ibarra," said the alcalde, as he came back. "Thank God, the dead is neither priest nor Spaniard! You ought to celebrate your escape! What if the stone had fallen on you!"
"He had presentiments!" cried the notary. "He did not want to go down, that was plain to be seen!"
"It's only an Indian!"
"Let the f?te go on! Give us music! Mourning won't raise the dead. Captain, let the inquest be held! Arrest the head builder!"
"Shall he be put in the stocks?"
"Yes, in the stocks! Music, music! The head builder in the stocks!"
"Se?or Alcalde," said Ibarra, "if mourning won't raise the dead, neither will the imprisonment of a man whose guilt is not proven. I go security for his person and ask his liberty, for these f?te days at least."
"Very well! But let him not repeat it!" said the alcalde.
All kinds of rumors circulated among the people. The idea of a miracle was generally accepted. Many said they had seen descend into the trench at the fatal moment a figure in a dark costume, like that of the Franciscans. 'Twas no doubt San Diego himself.
"A bad beginning," muttered old Tasio, shaking his head as he moved away.
FREE THOUGHT.
Ibarra, who had gone home for a change of clothing, had just finished dressing when a servant announced that a peasant wished to see him. Supposing it to be one of his laborers, he had him taken to his work room, which was at the same time his library and chemical laboratory. To his great surprise he found himself face to face with the mysterious Elias.
"You saved my life," said the man, speaking in Tagalo, and understanding the movement of Ibarra. "I have not half paid my debt. Do not thank me. It is I who should thank you. I have come to ask a favor."
"Speak!" said his listener.
Elias fixed his melancholy eyes on Ibarra's and went on:
"When the justice of man tries to clear up this mystery, and your testimony is taken, I entreat you not to speak to any one of the warning I gave you."
"Do not be alarmed," said Cris?stomo, losing interest; "I know you are pursued, but I'm not an informer."
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