If this plan had been
carried out no white man and no white woman would have escaped. The
reinforcements from the United States would have arrived to find
only the smoking ruins of Manila. Buencamino had warned General
Augustin what the fate of Manila would be if taken by a horde of
Indians drunk with victory. That fate was now deliberately planned
for the city. Aguinaldo planned to occupy the capital not as it had
been occupied by the Americans. He planned to take it as Count Tilly
took Magdeburg.
"The authors of this plan were not savages. Mabini, Sandico, and Luna,
Asiatics educated in European schools, were men of trained and subtle
minds. With them cruelty and assassination was not a matter of savage
impulse but of deliberate calculation; with them assassination was
employed as an effective addition to political propaganda, and murder
as an ultimate resource in political manoeuvres." [213]
Some portions of Aguinaldo's instructions to the _sandatahan_ are
particularly worthy of perpetuation, as they illustrate his ideas
as to the conduct which should be observed by cultured, patriotic,
honourable and very humane men, who were not cruel:--
"_Art_. 3. The chief of those who go to attack the barracks
should send in first four men with a good present for the American
commander.
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