This
accursed news made us begin to fear some disagreeable incident.
"Our Matias went ashore and delivered the official communication
regarding our transfer to Villa, while we waited impatiently for
his decision. Sergeant Matias at length returned with orders for
our disembarkation; we put on the best clothes we had and the rowers
placed a broad plank between the lighter and the arsenal and we left
our floating prison two abreast. Matias called the roll and the order
to march, we were eighty-four friars in a long column climbing the
steep ascent to Ilagan.
"When we had arrived in front of the building used for headquarters, we
faced about in front thereof, and the first thing we saw in one of the
windows were the sinister features of Falaris, who with a thundering
brow and black look was delighting himself in the contemplation of
so many priests surrounded by bayonets and filled with misery. Any
other person but Villa would have melted on seeing such a spectacle,
which could but incite compassion. The two American tourists were
also looking on at this horrible scene as if stupefied, but they soon
withdrew in order, perhaps, not to look upon such a painful picture. It
was, indeed, heartrending to contemplate therein old gray-haired men
who had passed their lives in apostolic work side by side with young
men who had just arrived in this ungrateful land, and many sick who
rather than men seemed to be marble statues, who had no recourse but
to stand in line, without one word of consolation; therein figured
some who wore religious garb, others in secular dress limited to
a pair of rumpled trousers and a cast-off coat, the lack of this
luxurious garment being replaced in some instances by a native shirt.
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