EL FILIBUSTERISMO

XII. PLACIDO PENITENTE

CHAPTER XII

PLACIDO PENITENTE

Reluctantly, and almost with tearful eyes, Placido Penitente was going

along the Escolta on his way to the University of Santo Tomas. It

had hardly been a week since he had come from his town, yet he had

already written to his mother twice, reiterating his desire to abandon

his studies and go back there to work. His mother answered that he

should have patience, that at the least he must be graduated as a

bachelor of arts, since it would be unwise to desert his books after

four years of expense and sacrifices on both their parts.

Whence came to Penitente this aversion to study, when he had been

one of the most diligent in the famous college conducted by Padre

Valerio in Tanawan? There Penitente had been considered one of the

best Latinists and the subtlest disputants, one who could tangle or

untangle the simplest as well as the most abstruse questions. His

townspeople considered him very clever, and his curate, influenced by

that opinion, already classified him as a filibuster--a sure proof that

he was neither foolish nor incapable. His friends could not explain

those desires for abandoning his studies and returning: he had no

sweethearts, was not a gambler, hardly knew anything about _hunkían_

and rarely tried his luck at the more familiar _revesino_. He did

not believe in the advice of the curates, laughed at _Tandang Basio

Macunat_, had plenty of money and good clothes, yet he went to school

reluctantly and looked with repugnance on his books.

On the Bridge of Spain, a bridge whose name alone came from Spain,

since even its ironwork came from foreign countries, he fell in with

the long procession of young men on their way to the Walled City to

their respective schools. Some were dressed in the European fashion and

walked rapidly, carrying books and notes, absorbed in thoughts of their

lessons and essays--these were the students of the Ateneo. Those from

San Juan de Letran were nearly all dressed in the Filipino costume, but

were more numerous and carried fewer books. Those from the University

are dressed more carefully and elegantly and saunter along carrying

canes instead of books. The collegians of the Philippines are not very

noisy or turbulent. They move along in a preoccupied manner, such that

upon seeing them one would say that before their eyes shone no hope,

no smiling future. Even though here and there the line is brightened

by the attractive appearance of the schoolgirls of the _Escuela

Municipal_, [24] with their sashes across their shoulders and their