El Filibusterismo (El Fili) – Chapter 38
Chapter Title: A Trick of Fate
Setting: May, Luzon
Characters:
- Cabesang Tales
- Mautang
- Carolino / Tano
- Corporal
- Tandang Selo
- Juan de Paz (mentioned)
Plot:
Soldiers are attacked by bandits in the mountains.
Chapter Summary:
Matanglawin’s band appears in many provinces and causes chaos, destroying farms and assassinating the juan de paz of Tiani. They steals weapons in the town hall in Cavite and are well-known even in Tayabas, Pangasinan, Albay and Cagayan. Matanglawin captures villagers and tortures them if they fight back. They know that if they ally with him they will be punished by the government instead, so most villagers decide to join him.
Because of this, economy in the towns suffers. People are afraid to travel and the poor are captured by guardia civiles and thought to be bandits, so they are tortured.
Six or seven suspects are being marched on a road around a mountain, surrounded by ten or twelve guards and tied together. Anyone who falls is beaten with a branch. When the guards stop to drink, the prisoners are not given water. They are beaten again in order to start moving.
One of the soldiers (named Mautang) stops using the branch and starts kicking the prisoner. Another soldier, Carolino (who did not abuse the prisoners), tells him to stop. Mautang says Carolino is probably new, and that he feels this way only because their prisoners are their countrymen.
Mautang says they should be treated like that so they won’t escape. One of the prisoners asks to rest. The corporal says to keep going because the place is dangerous. Mautang hits the prisoner with a branch again and the prisoner says he is more cruel than a Spaniard. Mautang starts hitting him some more when suddenly he is shot dead.
The corporal tells everyone to halt but there is another bullet that hits him in the thigh. The corporal tells the guards to shoot the prisoners. The prisoners beg for mercy but they are killed. The guards start shooting at the mountains but they cannot see the enemy.
The corporal yells at Carolino to use his marksmanship skills. A man appears on the rock and makes signs with his rifle. The corporal says to fire at him and the guards try but miss. The man keeps shouting.
Carolino thinks he recognizes the figure but the corporal yells to shoot. Carolino shoots and the man is hit and falls. Another man appears holding a lance and the soldiers shoot him. The guards move forward (Carolino walking behind them), and one of them sees a dying old man on the rock. He stabs him with his bayonet but the old man does not notice. He looks at Carolino and points to something behind him. It is revealed that Carolino is actually Tano, Cabesang Tales’ son who returned from the Carolines.
Carolino recognizes his grandfather, Tandang Selo. Tandang Selo keeps pointing behind the rocks, at Cabesang Tales’ body.
Trivia:
Quotes:
In its impotence, the Government put on a show of force against the persons who appeared suspect, so that by force of cruelty the people would not notice its frailty, the fear that goaded such measures.
The cold of Siberia would perhaps be kinder than the sun of May in the Philippines!
