The Story of the Philippines Part 18

Crossing the bridge of Spain to the walled city and turning to the right there are well-paved streets bordered with strips of park beside the river, that is rus.h.i.+ng the same way if you are going to headquarters; and the object that tells where to turn off to find the old gateway through the wall, with a drawbridge over the gra.s.sy moat, is a Monument to Alphonse, whose memory it is the habit of these people to celebrate. Approaching the city hall (headquarters) there is a white-walled hospital to note; then comes a heavy ma.s.s of buildings on a narrow street, and the small square already styled in this article a park, and we arrive at the grand entrance of the official edifice. The room devoted to ceremony is so s.p.a.cious that one must consent that magnitude is akin to grandeur. There is the usual double stairway and a few stone steps to overcome. On the right and left under the second lift of stairs were corded the Spanish Mausers and Remingtons and many boxes of cartridges. I have several times noticed soldiers tramping on loose cartridges as though they had no objection at all to an explosion. You can tell the Mauser ammunition, because the cartridges are in clips of five, and the little bullets famous for their long flight are covered with nickel. The Remington bullets are bigger and coated with bra.s.s. Something has been said to the effect that the Remington b.a.l.l.s used by the Spaniards are poisonous and that it is uncivilized to manufacture them. The object of the Mauser and Remington system in covering the bullets, the one with nickel and the other with bra.s.s, is not to poison, but to prevent the lead from fouling the rifles. The point is almost reached in modern guns of 2,000 and 3,000 yards range where the friction of the gun barrel and the speed of the missile at the muzzle are sufficient to fuse unprotected lead, and at any rate so much of the soft material would soon he left in the grooves as to impair accuracy and endanger the structure of the arm.

Right ahead when the first stairs are cleared is a splendid hall, with a pair of gilded lions on a dais, and some of the boys had adorned these beasts with crowns of theatrical splendor. The arms of Spain are conspicuous, and in superb medallions ill.u.s.trious warriors, statesmen, authors, artists and navigators, look down from the walls upon desks now occupied by American officers. Above this floor the stairs are blocks of hardwood, the full width of the stairway and the height of the step, and this earthquake precaution does not detract from the dignity of the building, for the woodwork is ma.s.sive and handsome. A marvelous effect might be produced in some of the marble palaces of private citizens in our American cities by the construction of stairways with the iron-hard and marble-brilliant wood that is abundant in Puerto Rico, Cuba and Luzon. The hall in which the city council met, now the place of the provost-marshal's court, is furnished in a style that puts to shame the frugality displayed in the council chambers of our expensively governed American cities, where men of power pose as munic.i.p.al economists.

In the elevated chair of the President, faced by the array of chairs of the Spanish councilmen, or aldermen, sits the provost-marshal judge, and before him come the soldiers who have forgotten themselves and the culprits arrested by the patrol. On the wall above him is a full-length likeness of the Queen Regent--a beautiful, womanly figure, with a tender and anxious mother's solicitous face. She looks down with sad benignity upon the American military government. There is also a portrait of the boy king, who becomes slender as he gains height, and rather sickly than strong. It may be that too much care is taken of him.

In the corner room at the end of the corridor Major-General Otis received at his desk the news that Generals Merritt and Greene were ordered home, and that he was the major-general commanding and the chief of the civil, as well as the military department of the government. He had already found much to do and tackled the greater task with imperturbable spirit and a habit of hard work with, his friends say, no fault but a habit that is almost impracticable of seeing for himself almost everything he is himself held responsible for. If he has a weakness of that sort he has a rare opportunity to indulge it to the full extent of his personal resources. He certainly dispatches business rapidly, decides the controverted points quickly and has a clear eye for the field before him. His record is a good one. When the war of the States came on he was a New York lawyer--his home is at Rochester. Near the close of the war he was wounded on the Weldon road, along which Grant was extending his left wing to envelop Petersburg. He was struck by a musket ball almost an inch from the end of the nose, and the course of it was through the bones of the face under the right eye, pa.s.sing out under the right ear. He was "shot through the head," and suffered intensely for a long time, but maintained his physical vitality and mental energy. His face is but slightly marked by this dreadful wound. He has been a hard student all his life, and is an accomplished soldier, as well as an experienced lawyer. His judicial services in court-martials have been highly estimated. Altogether he is well equipped for executing the various duties of his position. He will "hold the fort in good shape." In an adjacent room, a.s.sistant Adjutant-General Strong, son of the ex-mayor of New York, a young man of much experience in the national guard and a sharp shooter, sticks to business with zeal and knowledge, and in a very few days established a reputation as a helper.

So much has been said in disparagement of the "sons of somebodies"

that it is a pleasure to put in evidence the cleverness and intelligent industry of Captain Strong, late of the 69th New York, and of Captain Coudert, of New York.

General Merritt took possession of the palace of the governor-general, overlooking the river, a commodious establishment, with a pretentious gate on the street, a front yard full of shrubbery and rustling with trees, a drive for carriages and doors for their occupants at the side and a porte cochere, as the general said with a twinkle of his eye, for the steam launch which was a perquisite of the Governor. The commanding general of the Philippine expedition enjoyed the life on the river, along which boats were constantly pa.s.sing, carrying country supplies to the city and returning. The capacity of canoes to convey fruit and vegetables and all that the market called for was an unexpected disclosure. There were unfailing resources up the river or a mult.i.tude of indications were inaccurate. The General's palace is more s.p.a.cious than convenient; the dining room designed for stately banquets, but the furniture of the table was not after the manner of feasts, though the best the country afforded, and the supply of meat improved daily, while the fruit told of the kindly opulence of the tropics.

There was a work of art in the palatial headquarters that the commanding general highly appreciated--a splendid but somber painting of the queen regent in her widow's weeds, holding the boy king as a baby on her right shoulder, her back turned to the spectator, gloomy drapery flowing upon the carpet, her profile and pale brow and dark and l.u.s.trous hair shown, her gaze upon the child and his young eyes fixed upon the spectator. This picture has attracted more attention than any other in Manila, and the city is rich in likenesses of the queen mother and the royal boy, who, without fault have upon them the heavy sorrows of Spain in an era of misfortune and humiliation; and it will take some time for the Spanish people, highly or lowly placed, to realize that the loss of colonies, as they have held them, is a blessing to the nation and offers the only chance of recuperation and betterment in Spain's reputation and relations with the world.

The governor-general's palace, with General Merritt for General, was a workshop, and the highly decorated apartments, lofty and elaborate, were put to uses that had an appearance of being incongruous. The cot of the soldier, shrouded in a mosquito bar, stood in the midst of sumptuous furniture, before towering mirrors in showy frames, and from niches looked down marble statues that would have been more at home in the festal scenes of pompous life in the sleepy cities of dreamy lands. There was no more striking combination than a typewriting machine mounted on a magnificent table, so thick and resplendent with gold that it seemed one ma.s.s of the precious metal--not gilt, but solid bullion--and the marble top had the iridescent glow of a sea sh.e.l.l. This was in the residence of the General, his dining and smoking rooms and bedrooms for himself and staff, the actual headquarters being next door in the residence of the secretary-general. Here was a brilliant exhibition of mirrors, upon some of which were paintings of dainty design and delicate execution, queerly effective. The tall gla.s.ses stood as if upon mantles. There were other gla.s.ses that duplicated their splendors; through the open doors down the street, which was the one for the contemplation of the gorgeous--and down the street means into the modern end of the city--was the residence of the Spanish Admiral of the annihilated fleet, Montijo. It had been the property of and was the creation of a German, who got rich and got away in good time with $1,000,000 or more, selling his house to one of the rich Chinese, who had the fortune, good, bad or indifferent, to become the landlord of the Admiral whose s.h.i.+ps disappeared in a vast volume of white vapor on the May morning when the Americans came and introduced themselves.

General Greene's headquarters were in the house the German merchant built, the Chinese millionaire bought, and the Admiral, without a fleet since the 1st of May, rented. The furnis.h.i.+ng was rich; there were frescoes that were aglow with the tropic birds and window curtains that were dreams. The vast mansions of the ex-officials were not, however, such as would have been sought as accommodations for the management of the military and other affairs, and there was much lacking to comfort; but as the hotels after the siege were not tolerable, the officers had to discover houses in which they could develop resources, and the public property was that of those who conquered to the extent to which it had belonged to those displaced.

The Americans got out of the chaotic hotels soon as possible, for there were some things in them simply not endurable. They rent houses and employ servants and set up housekeeping. The newspaper correspondents have been driven to this, and they are comparatively happy. They have found ponies almost a necessary of life, and food that is fair is attainable, while the flowing hydrants remove a good deal of privation and apprehension. The water is from an uncontaminated stream, and though slightly soiled after heavy rainfalls, it is not poisonous, and that is what many American and European cities cannot truthfully say of their water supplies. The demand for houses by the Americans has raised the views of the proprietors. The street on which the official Spaniards meant to flourish, as Weyler, Blanco and others had done before them, and had not time to reap a harvest of plunder before the days of doom came, would be called by the citizens of Cleveland, O., the Euclid avenue of the town. It runs out to the old fort where the Spaniards made their stand "for the honor of the arms of Spain." The English and German and Chinese successful men reside in this quarter. The majority of those who have provided themselves with houses by the river and fronting on the street most approved, looking out through groves and gardens, are Chinese half-castes, claiming Chinese fathers and Philippine mothers. These are the most rapacious and successful acc.u.mulators, and they would all be glad to see the Americans stay, now that they are there, and have shown themselves so competent to appreciate desirable opportunities and understand the ways and means, the acquirements and the dispensations of prosperity as our troops entered the city by the princ.i.p.al residence street, it was noticed that guards were left at all the houses that displayed the British flag--a reward for English courtesy, and the feeling of the troops that the British are our friends.

CHAPTER XIII

The White Uniforms of Our Heroes in the Tropics.

The Mother Hubbard Street Fas.h.i.+on in Honolulu, and That of Riding Astride--Spoiling Summer Clothes in Manila Mud--The White Raiment of High Officers--Drawing the Line on Nights.h.i.+rts--Ashamed of Big Toes--Dewey and Merritt as Figures of Show--The Boys in White.

Recent experiences of the United States excite attention to the fas.h.i.+ons of the tropics. In Florida our soldiers who invaded Cuba were in a degree and sense acclimated for the temperature of the island that has been for so long "so near, and yet so far," so wet and yet so hot. But the troops of the Philippine expedition were not prepared by the chilly blasts from the mountains of California for the exceedingly soft airs of Hawaii, though Honolulu was a pleasant introductory school to Manila. Our new possession two thousand miles from the continent, has been preparing for the destiny realized for two generations, and the American ladies who dwell in the islands of perpetual summer in the Pacific, have not submitted wholly to the dominion of the climate and composed themselves to languish in loose and gauzy garments when on the streets. But the Honolulu women, in general, who largely are in the possession of luxuriant proportions, are enveloped in the blandishments of Mother Hubbards, and do not even tie strings about themselves to show where they would have spectators to infer their waists ought to be. They go about flowing and fluttering in freedom, and have all the advantages due the total abandonment of corsets, and suffer none of the horrors of tight lacing recorded in medical publications. The Mother Hubbard gown is not without its attractions, but we can hardly say they are too obvious, and slender figures are lost in voluminous folds that are billowy in the various ways and means of embracing the evolutions of beauty. And the native singers seem fully justified in throwing the full force of their lungs and the rapture of their souls into the favorite chorus, "The Honolulu Girls Are Good Enough for Me." The refrains of the Hawaiian songs are full of a flavor of pathos, and there is the cry of sorrows, that seem to be in the very air, but belong to other ages. The Honolulu females of all races have flung away side saddles with their corsets, and bestride horses and mules with the confidence in the rect.i.tude of their intentions that so besets and befits the riders of bicycles. People would stare with disapproval in Honolulu to see a woman riding with both legs on the same side of a horse, and those wandering abroad in the voluminous folds of two s.p.a.cious garments disapprove the unusual and unseemly spectacle.

It is as hot in some parts of Texas, Arizona and California as in any of the islands of the seas of the South, but we had not been educated in the art of clothing armies for service in the torrid zone, until the Philippine expedition was undertaken, and we were making ready for challenging the Spaniards in their Cuban fastnesses, when it speedily was in evidence that we wanted something more than blue cloth and blankets. The Spanish white and blue stuff and straw hats were to our eyes unsightly and distasteful, and we began with a variety of goods. Our army hats were found good, but we tried nearly all things before holding onto anything as sufficient for trousers and coats. The officers on long journeys speedily resolved, if we may judge from the results, that the suit most natty and nice for wear within twenty degrees of the Equator was the perfect white, and so the snowy figures below shoulder straps became familiar. This did not, of course, indicate acute stages of active service. Never were campaigns more destructive of good looks in clothing, than those in a.s.sailing Santiago and Manila, in which the thin stuffs were tested in torrential rain and ditches full of mud. The compensation was that the volunteers fresh from the camps of instruction, put on in a few days the appearance of veteran campaigners. In Manila there was an edifying contrast between the Spaniards who had surrendered and the Americans who did not pause when the Mausers were fired into their ranks, not with the faintest hope of successful resistance, but for the "honor of Spain." The Spanish soldiers had been well sheltered and came out in fairly clean clothes, while the soldiers of our nation closed up dingy ranks, suited for hunting in swamps and thickets, their coats, hats and trousers the color of blasted gra.s.s and decayed leaves. The pa.s.sage of the line from the new to the old clothes was sudden, and the gallant boys in blue were not in the least disconsolate over the discoloration of their uniforms, having reached the stage where it was a luxury to sleep on a floor or pavement, without wasting time to find a soft or quiet spot.

The sombre taste of the Spanish ladies in dress, so famous and effective that the black mantillas and skirts, and the fans that do such execution in the hands of the dark-eyed coquettes, as to have sway where empires have been lost and won--control Cuba, but does not dominate the Philippines. The Pope of the period, it will be remembered, divided the new worlds discovered by the navigators of Spain and Portugal, awarding to the best of his knowledge, by a line drawn south from the southern sh.o.r.e of the Caribbean Sea. Portugal holding that to the eastward and Spain that to the westward. Hence the separation of South America between Brazil and the rest of the central and south American states, to await the inevitable end of the evolutions that were the revolutions of independence. Magellines, a Portuguese, who, being slighted in his own country, went over to the Spaniards, and pointed out that by sailing west the east would be attained, and so found the straits that bear his name, and the Ladrones and Philippines, annihilating the Papal boundary line by taking and breaking it from the rear.

The conquest of the Philippines by the Spaniards has not been complete as a military achievement or the enforcement of the adoption of customs and costumes according to the habits and taste of the conquerors, who have nibbled at the edges of the vast archipelago, greater in its length and breadth and its natural riches than the West Indies. The Spanish ladies in the Philippines are dressed as in the ancient cities of their own renowned peninsula. The Filipinos are of the varied styles that adorn Africans and the Asiatics. They are gay in colors and curious in the adjustment of stuffs, from the flimsy jackets to the fantastic skirts. The first essential in the dress of a Filipino is a jacket cut low, the decolette feature being obscured to some extent by pulling out one shoulder and covering the other, taking the chances of the lines that mark the concealment and disclosure of breast and back. There is no expression of immodesty. The woman of the Philippines is sad as she is swarthy, and her melancholy eyes are almost always introspective, or glancing far away, and revising the disappointed dreams of long ago. Profounder grief than is read in the faces of bronze and copper no mourning artist has wrought nor gloomy poet written. Below the jacket, the everlasting blazer, is a liberal width of cloth tightly drawn about the loins, stomach and hips, making no mistake in revelations of the original outline drawings, or the flexibilities which the activities display. There are two skirts, an outer one that opens in front, showing the tunic, which is of a color likely to be gaudy and showing strangely with the outer one. The feet are exposed, and if not bare, clothed only in clumsy slippers with toe pieces, and neither heels nor uppers. Women carry burdens on their heads, and walk erect and posed as if for snap photographs. The young girls are fond of long hair, black as cannel coal, and streaming in a startling cataract to the hips. It seems that the crop of hair is unusually large, and it s.h.i.+nes with vitality, as the breeze lifts it in the suns.h.i.+ne. The Philippine boys are still more lightly clad than the girls, who have an eye to queer combinations of colors, and the revelation of the lines that distinguish the female form without flagrant disclosure. There is much Philippine dressing that may under all the surroundings be called modest, and the prevalent expression of the Filipino is that of fixed but bewildered grief. The males are rather careless, and display unstinted the drawings of legs, that are copper-colored and more uniform in tint than symmetry. Two or three rags do a surprisingly extensive service, and all the breezes cause the fluttering of fantastic but scanty raiment. It is a comfort to return to a country where people wear clothing not as a flimsy and inadequate disguise. What will be the influence of our armies bent to the tropics, upon the dress of Americans? It is a question that may be important. The "wheel" has introduced knickerbockers and promises to result in knee breeches. On the transports that have traversed the Pacific the soldiers were fond of taking exercise in unders.h.i.+rts and drawers only and they swarmed from their bunks at night, to sleep on deck, sometimes condescending to spread blankets to take the edge off the cruelty of the hard wood, but reluctant to be enc.u.mbered with unders.h.i.+rts. Their favorite night dress was drawers only, and they acted upon the false theory that one cannot take cold at sea. The authority of officers was often necessary to impress the average soldier that he ought to have an unders.h.i.+rt between his skin and the sky. The boys were during their long voyage very sparing in the use of shoes and stockings, and it has perhaps never before occurred in American experiences that there was such an opportunity to study the infinite variety of the big toe, and, indeed, of all the toes. In active army service the care of the feet is essential. The revelations on s.h.i.+pboard disclose the evils of ill-fitting shoes to be most distrusting. One of the claims of West Point for high consideration is in teaching the beauty of white trousers, and our tropical army experiences will extend the fas.h.i.+on. When General Merritt and Admiral Dewey parted on the deck of the China in Manila harbor, both were clad in spotless white, their caps, coats and trousers making a showy combination. There was also a group of sea captains who had gathered to give the Captain of the China a good send-off, and they with the staff officers, were all in radiant white. There was not a boy in blue among them. The ill.u.s.trious General and Admiral reminded me of Gabriel Ravel, when in his glory as The White Knight. It would be hard to say which wore the nattier cap, but that of the Admiral was of the more jaunty cut, while the General--gold cord for a band and gold b.u.t.tons, especially became his blue eyes. If the officers of the army, navy and transports could be photographed as they stood in dazzling array, as if hewn from marble, the fas.h.i.+on plate resulting would be incomparably attractive, and in the summers to come we shall find among the influences of our tropical adventure and possessions a heightening of the colors worn by American ladies, and a whitening of the suits of gentlemen, involving the necessity of "calling in"

white coats, as well as straw hats on stated days in early September.

CHAPTER XIV

A Martyr to the Liberty of Speech.

Dr. Jose Rizal, the Most Distinguished Literary Man of the Philippines, Writer of History, Poetry, Political Pamphlets, and Novels, Shot on the Luneta of Manila--A Likeness of the Martyr--The Scene of His Execution, from a Photograph--His Wife Married the Day Before His Death--Poem Giving His Farewell Thoughts, Written in His Last Hours--The Works That Cost Him His Life--The Vision of Friar Rodriguez.

There is history, romance and tragedy in the martyrdom of Dr. Rizal, whose execution by shooting on the Luneta two years ago is a notable incident of the cruelties of Spanish rule. This was on account of the scholars.h.i.+p, the influence, the literary accomplishments, and the personal distinction of the man. Dr. Rizal was easily the foremost writer his race and country has produced. He was a poet, novelist, political essayist, and historian, and his execution was for the crime of loving his country, opposing the Spaniards, criticising and lampooning the priests. He is called the Tagalo Martyr, for he was of the tribe of Malay origin, the most numerous and rebellious in the Philippine Islands. His fate was shocking. He was an intelligent, learned man, an enthusiastic patriot, who had been educated in Spain and France. For writing a book against Spanish oppression he was exiled to the Island of Dapitan. There he met a young woman of Irish parentage, with whom he fell in love. They were engaged to be married, when, on some pretext, the Doctor was brought back to Manila, sent to Madrid to be tried, and then sent back to Manila. The unhappy girl to whom he was betrothed tells the rest of the story:

"Everyone knew that Dr. Rizal was innocent. All that could be brought against him was the publication of his book, and the Spanish officials who tried him had never even read it. Nevertheless, he was condemned to death. I then asked permission to be married to him, and they granted my request, thinking to add to the horror of his martyrdom. The marriage was celebrated by a friar the same day on which he was sentenced. I pa.s.sed the whole night on my knees in prayer before the prison door, which shut my husband from me. When morning dawned, the Doctor came out, surrounded by soldiers, his hands bound behind his back. They took him to the Luneta, the fas.h.i.+onable promenade of the city, where all military executions take place. The lieutenant in command of the firing party asked my husband where he would prefer to be shot. He replied 'Through the heart.' 'Impossible,' said the lieutenant. 'Such a favor is granted only to men of rank. You will be shot in the back.' A moment after my husband was dead. The soldiers shouted, 'Hurrah for Spain,' and I, 'Hurrah for the Philippines and death to Spain.' I asked for the body. It was refused me. Then I swore to avenge his death. I secured a revolver and dagger and joined the rebels. They gave me a Mauser rifle, and the Philippines will be free."

In his poem, filled with his last thoughts--his exalted dreams that had faded, his patriotic sentiments that were b.l.o.o.d.y dust and ashes, his love for the woman he was allowed to marry a few hours before he was shot, his woeful love for his troop of devoted friends, who would have died for him and with him if the sacrifice then and there had not been hopeless--it will be discovered that he was a true poet, and we give one of his stories that was hostile to the orders of the Church, and a satire on Spanish rule, showing why he was a martyr.

The following is a prose translation from the Spanish of the poem Dr. Rizal wrote the night before he was executed:

_My Last Thoughts._

Farewell! my adored country; region beloved of the sun; pearl of the Orient sea; our lost Eden! I cheerfully give for thee my saddened life, and had it been brighter, happier and more rosy, I would as willingly give it for thy sake.

Unhesitatingly and without regret others give thee their lives in frenzied fight on the battlefield. But what matter the surroundings! Be they cypress, laurel or lilies, scaffold or open country, combat or cruel martyrdom, it is all the same, when for country and home's redress.

I die while watching the flus.h.i.+ng skies announce through dark mantle the advent of a day. Should it need purple to tint its dawn, here is my blood; I gladly will shed it if only it be gilded by a ray of new-born light.

My dreams while only a boy, and when of vigor full, a youth, were always to see thee, jewel of the Orient sea! thy black eyes dry, thy frownless face uplifted, and spotless thine honor.

Dream of my life! My fervent anxiety! Shouts the soul that soon is to depart, Hail! It is glorious to fall to give thee flight; to die to give thee life; to die under thy Skies, and in thy maternal bosom eternally to sleep.

Shouldst thou find some day over my grave, a lonesome, humble flower, blossoming through the dense foliage, take it to your lips and kiss my soul. Let me feel upon my forehead under the cold tomb your warm and tender breath.

Let the moon with her soft and silent light watch over me; let dawn spread its fulgent splendor; let the wind moan with solemn murmur. And should a bird descend and repose upon my cross, let it there proclaim a canticle of peace.

Let the burning sun evaporate the dew, spreading through s.p.a.ce the notes of my songs. Let a friendly being mourn my early end, praying on calm evenings, when thou also, oh, dear country! should pray to G.o.d for me.

Pray for all those who died unhonored; for those who suffered unequaled torments; for our poor mothers who silently grieve; for orphans and for widows; for prisoners in torture; and pray for thyself that thou mayest attain thy final redemption.

And when the dark shades of night enwrap the cemetery, and the dead are left alone to watch, do not disturb their rest, do not disturb their mystery. Shouldst thou hear chords of a zither, it is I, beloved country! who sings to thee.

And when my grave, by all forgotten, is marked by neither cross nor stone, let the ploughman scatter its mould; and my ashes before returning to nothing will become the dust of your soil.

Then, I will not mind if thou castest me into oblivion. Thy atmosphere, thy s.p.a.ce, thy valleys I will cross. A vibrating, limpid note I will be in your ear; aroma, color, rumor, song, a sigh, constantly repeating the essence of my faith.

My idolized country! grief of my griefs! My adored Philippines! Hear my last farewell. I leave them all with thee; my fathers and my loves. I go where there are no slaves, no oppressors, no executioners; where faith is not death; where He who reigns is G.o.d.

Farewell! fathers and brothers, parts of my soul! Friends of my infancy in the lost home. Give thanks that I should rest from the fatiguing day. Farewell, sweet stranger, my friend, my joy. Farewell, beloved beings. To die is to rest.

_Jose Rizal._

_The Vision of Friar Rodriguez._

Comfortably seated in an arm chair one night, satisfied with himself as well as with his supper, Friar Jose Rodriguez dreamed of the many pennies that the sale of his little books was drawing from the pockets of the Filipinos, when suddenly, and as if by enchantment, the yellow light of the lamp gave a brilliant, white flash, the air was filled with soft perfume, and without his being able to explain how or wherefrom, a man appeared.

This was an old man of medium height, dark complected and thin, whose white beard was a contrast to his glittering vivacious eyes, which gave his face extreme animation. Over his shoulder he wore a long cape; a mitre on his head and a crosier in his hand gave him the aspect of a Bishop.