Friars and Filipinos Part 21

Everything around bent itself before her. She met no resistance, there was nothing upon which she could discharge the vials of her wrath. Soldiers and servants crawled before her.

That she might not hear the rejoicing going on outside, she ordered the windows to be closed, and charged the sentry not to permit any one to enter. She tied a handkerchief around her head to prevent it from bursting; and, in spite of the fact that the sun was still s.h.i.+ning brightly, she ordered the lamps lighted.

A madwoman who had been detained for disturbing the public peace was taken to the barracks. The alferez was not there at the time and the unhappy woman had to pa.s.s the night seated on a bench. The following day the alferez returned. Fearing lest the unhappy woman should become the b.u.t.t of the crowd during the fiesta, he ordered the soldiers who were guarding her to treat her with pity and give her something to eat. Thus the demented woman pa.s.sed two days.

Whether the proximity to Captain Tiago's house made it possible for the sad song of Maria Clara to reach her ears, whether other strains of music awoke in her memories of old songs, or whether there was some other cause for it, at any rate, the madwoman began that night to sing with a sweet and melancholy voice the songs of her youth. The soldiers heard her and kept silent. Those songs brought back memories of the old times.

Dona Consolacion also heard it in her sorrow, and became interested in the person who was singing.

"Tell her to come upstairs at once!" she ordered, after some seconds of meditation. Something like a smile pa.s.sed over her dry lips.

They brought the woman and she presented herself without any discomposure, and without manifesting either fear or surprise.

"Orderly, tell this woman in Tagalog to sing!" said the alfereza. "She don't understand me; she does not know Spanish."

The demented woman understood the orderly and sang the song "Night."

Dona Consolacion listened to the beginning with a mocking smile which disappeared gradually from her lips. She became attentive, then more serious and pensive. The woman's voice, the sentiment of the verses and the song itself impressed her. That dry and burning heart was perhaps softened. She understood the song well: "Sadness, cold, and dampness, wrapped in the mantle of Night descend from the sky,"

as the folk song puts it. It seemed that they were also descending upon her heart. "The withered flower which during the day has paraded its dress, desirous of applause and full of vanity, at nightfall repenting, makes an effort to raise its faded petals to the sky, and begs for a little shade in which to hide itself, so as to die without the mockery of the light which saw it in its pomp, to die without the vanity of its pride being seen, and begging for a drop of dew, to weep over it. The night bird, leaving its solitary retreat in the hollow of the old tree, disturbs the melancholy of the forests...."

"No, no! Do not sing!" exclaimed the alfereza in perfect Tagalog and raising to her feet somewhat agitated. "Don't sing! Those verses hurt me!"

The demented woman stopped. The orderly muttered "Bah!" and exclaimed "She knows how to pata Tagalog!" and stood looking at the senora full of surprise.

The Muse understood that she had been caught, and was ashamed. As her nature was not that of a woman, her shame took the form of rage and hatred. She pointed out the door to the impudent orderly and with a kick closed it behind him. She took several turns about the room, twisting a whip between her nervous hands, and then, stopping suddenly in front of the demented woman, said in Spanish: "Dance!"

The demented one did not move.

"Dance! Dance!" she repeated in a threatening voice.

The poor woman looked at the Senora, her eyes devoid of expression. The alfereza raised one arm and then the other, shaking them in a menacing way.

She then leaped up in the air, and jumped around urging the other woman to imitate her. The band in the procession could be heard playing a slow, majestic march, but the Senora, leaping about furiously was keeping time to different music than that the band was playing, that music which resounded within her. A curious look appeared in the madwoman's eyes, and a weak smile moved her pale lips. She liked the Senora's dancing.

The alfereza stopped dancing as if ashamed. She raised the whip, that terrible whip made in Ulango and improved by the alferez by winding wire around it, that same terrible whip which the ladrones and soldiers knew so well.

"Now it is your turn to dance ... dance!"

And she began to whip lightly the demented woman's bare feet.

The pale face contracted with pain, and she was obliged to defend herself from the blows by her hands.

"Come! Go ahead!" she exclaimed with savage delight, and she pa.s.sed from lento to allegro-vivace in the use of her whip.

The unhappy woman screamed and quickly raised her feet.

"You have got to dance, you d----d Indian!" exclaimed the Senora and the whip whizzed and whistled.

The woman let herself sink to the floor and tried to cover her legs with her hands, at the same time looking with wild eyes at her tormentor. Two heavy lashes on her back made her rise again. Now it was no longer a scream; it was a howl which escaped from the unfortunate woman. The thin s.h.i.+rt was torn, the skin broke open and the blood oozed out.

The sight of blood excites a tiger; so, too, the sight of the blood of her victim infuriated Dona Consolacion.

"Dance! dance! Curse you! D----n you! Dance! Cursed be the mother who bore you!" she cried. "Dance, or I'll kill you by whipping you to death!"

Then the alfereza, taking the woman with one hand and whipping her with another, began to jump and dance.

The insane woman understood her at last and went on moving her arms regardless of time or tune. A smile of satisfaction contracted the lips of the teacher. It was like the smile of a female Mephistopheles who had succeeded in developing a good pupil; it was full of hatred, contempt, mockery and cruelty; a coa.r.s.e laugh could not have expressed more.

Absorbed in the enjoyment which the spectacle afforded her, she did not hear her husband coming, until he opened the door with a kick.

The alferez appeared, pale and gloomy. He saw what was going on there and looked daggers at his wife. She did not move from her tracks and stood smiling in a cynical way.

In the gentlest manner possible, he put his hand on the shoulder of the dancing woman and made her stop. The demented woman sighed and slowly sat down on the blood-covered floor.

The silence continued. The alferez was breathing heavily. His wife was observing him with her questioning eyes. She seized the whip and in a calm and measured tone asked him: "What's the matter with you? You have not said 'good evening' to me."

The alferez, without replying, called the orderly.

"Take this woman," he said, "and have Marta give her another s.h.i.+rt and take care of her. Find her good food, and a good bed.... Let him look out who treats her badly!"

After carefully closing the door, he turned the key in the lock and approached his senora.

"You want me to smash you?" he said, clenching his fists.

"What's the matter with you?" asked she, retreating a step or two.

"What's the matter with me?" he shouted, in a thundering voice, and, giving vent to an oath, showed her a paper covered with scribbling. He continued:

"Didn't you write this letter to the Alcalde, saying that I am paid for permitting the gambling, d----n you? I don't know how I can keep from smas.h.i.+ng you."

"Go ahead! Try it if you dare!" said she, with a mocking smile. "He who smashes me has got to be more of a man than you!"

He heard the insult, but he saw the whip. He seized one of the plates which were on the table and threw it at her head. The woman, accustomed to these fights, ducked quickly and the plate was s.h.i.+vered to pieces against the wall. A gla.s.s, a cup, and a knife shared the same fortune.

"Coward!" she cried. "You dare not come near me!"

And then she spat at him to exasperate him more. The man, blind and howling with rage, threw himself on her, but she, with wonderful rapidity, struck him a few blows across the face with the whip, and quickly escaped. Closing the door of her room with a slam, she locked herself in. Roaring with rage and pain the alferez followed her, but, coming up against the door, he could do nothing but belch forth a string of blasphemies.

"Cursed be your ancestors, you swine! Open, d----n you! Open that door or I'll break your skull!" he howled, pounding and kicking the panels.

Dona Consolacion did not reply. A moving of chairs and trunks could be heard, as though some one was trying to raise a barricade of household furniture. The house fairly shook with the oaths and kicks of the husband.

"Don't you come in! Don't you come in!" she said, in a bitter voice. "If you show yourself, I'll shoot you!"

The husband calmed down, little by little, and contented himself with pacing from one end of the sala to the other like a wild animal in its cage.

"Go and cool your head!" continued the woman in mockery. She seemed to have concluded her preparations for defense.