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Ñor Juan did not rub his hands, nor was he carrying his rule and plumb-bob; he was dressed in black, for he had heard the bad news and, true to his habit of looking upon the future as already assured, was in mourning for Ibarra's death. At two o'clock in the afternoon an open cart drawn by two oxen stopped in front of the town hall.
Neither the diamonds in their blue velvet caskets, nor the embroidered piña, nor the pieces of silk had any attractions for Maria Clara. The maiden looked at the paper which gave the account of Ibarra's death, drowned in the lake, but she neither saw nor read it. Of a sudden, she felt two hands over her eyes.
Ibarra's escape had been effected by Elias, who conveys him in a banka up the Pasig to the Lake, where they are so closely beset by the Civil Guard that Elias leaps into the water and draws the pursuers away from the boat, in which Ibarra lies concealed.
Every time that the swimmer raised his head to breathe the Civil Guards and the men on board the falúa discharged their guns at him. The pursuit continued. Ibarra's little banca was already far off. The swimmer was approaching the shore of the lake and was now some fifty yards distant from it.
At the laying of the corner-stone for the new schoolhouse a suspicious accident, apparently aimed at Ibarra's life, occurs, but the festivities proceed until the dinner, where Ibarra is grossly and wantonly insulted over the memory of his father by Fray Damaso. The young man loses control of himself and is about to kill the friar, who is saved by the intervention of Maria Clara.
The good old woman had been a great friend of Ibarra's mother. But Ibarra left the house. It seemed to him that all about him was revolving through the air, that even the ground was gone from under his feet. His ears buzzed. His legs moved heavily and irregularly. Waves of blood, light and darkness, succeeded one another on the retina of his eye.
Don Pedro Eibarramendia?" he again asked, with livid features and a changed appearance. "Yes," replied Ibarra, distracted. "We cut short the name, for it was too long." "He was a Basque?" said Elias approaching him. "Yes; but what's the matter?" he asked, surprised. Elias closed his fist, shook it in Ibarra's face and looked at him.
"It will be made evident, Father, it will be made evident! And perhaps a mitre will fall to you!" replied the radiant alferez. "Be sure and send me four un-uniformed Civil Guards, eh? Be discreet! To-night at eight o'clock, it will rain stars and crosses." While this was going on, a man came running down the road which led to Ibarra's house, and quickly went up the stairs.
Some load firewood on the heavy carts, others fruits, ferns, and orchids, the rarest that grow in the forests, others bring broad-leafed caladiums and flame-colored tikas-tikas blossoms to decorate the doors of the houses. But the place where the greatest activity reigns, where it is converted into a tumult, is there on a little plot of raised ground, a few steps from Ibarra's house.
The girl did not respond, but allowed herself to be picked up like a child and carried to her room. Captain Tiago and Ibarra were talking earnestly when at last Aunt Isabel appeared, half dragging her niece by the hand. At first the girl looked in every direction but at the persons present. At last, however, her eyes met Ibarra's.
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