on the
Americans. His operations in this direction were mostly limited to
sending crackbrained letters to the Civil Governor in Manila from his
"camp in the sky," but his perturbation of the rural districts had to
be suppressed. At length, after a long search, he was taken prisoner
at the cockpit in Mariveles in May, 1904. He and his confederates were
brought to trial on the two counts of carrying arms without licence
and sedition, the revelations of the "triumvirate," which were comical
in the extreme, affording much amusement to the reading public. The
judgement of the court on Ricarte was six years' imprisonment and a
fine of $6,000.

Apolinario Mabini, Ricarte's companion in exile, was one of the most
conspicuous figures in the War of Independence. Of poor parentage,
he was born at Tanauan (Batangas) in May, 1864, and having finished
his studies in Manila he took up the law as a profession, living in
obscurity until the Rebellion, during which he became the recognized
leader of the Irreconcilables and Prime Minister in the Malolos
Government. In the political sphere he was the soul of the insurgent
movement, the ruling power behind the presidency of Aguinaldo. It
was he who drafted the Constitution of the Philippine Republic, dated
January 21, 1899 (_vide_ p. 486). Taken prisoner by the Americans in
December, 1899, he was imprisoned on his refusal to subscribe to the
oath of allegiance. On August 1, 1900, he was granted leave to appear
before the Philippine Commission, presided over by Mr. W. H. Taft. He
desired to show that, according to his lights, he was not stubbornly
holding out against reason. As Mabini was not permitted to discuss
abstract matters, and Mr. Taft reiterated the intention to establish
American sovereignty in the Islands, their views were at variance,
and Mabini was deported to Guam, but allowed the privilege of taking
his son there as his companion in exile. On his return to Manila in
February, 1903, he reluctantly took the required oath and was permitted
to remain in the capital. Suffering from paralysis for years previous,
his mental energy, as a chronic invalid, was amazing. Three months
after his return to the metropolis he was seized with cholera, to
which he succumbed on May 13, 1903, at the early age of thirty-nine, to
the great regret of his countrymen and of his many European admirers.

The Irreconcilables, even at the present day, persist in qualifying
as legitimate warfare that cond