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families. The festivities were at their height when the judge, who
had been on horseback and so had reached the town earlier, heard that
the prisoner, instead of being in the village calaboose, was a guest
of honor and apparently not suffering the annoyance to which he had
intended to subject her. He strode to the house, and, not content to
knock, broke in the door, splintered his cane on the poor constable's
head, and then exhausted himself beating the owner of the house.
These proceedings were revealed in a charge of prejudice which
Mrs. Rizal's lawyers urged against the judge who at the same time
was the one who decided the case and also the prosecutor. The Supreme
Court agreed that her contention was correct and directed that she be
discharged from custody. To this order the judge paid due respect and
ordered her release, but he said that the accusation of unfairness
against him was contempt of court, and gave her a longer sentence
under this charge than the previous one from which she had just been
absolved. After some delay the Supreme Court heard of this affair and
decided that the judge was right. But, because Mrs. Rizal had been
longer in prison awaiting trial than the sentence, they dated back
her imprisonment, and again ordered her release. Here the record
gets a little confused because it is concerned with a story that
her brother had sixteen thousand pesos concealed in his cell, and
everybody, from the Supreme Court down, seemed interested in trying
to locate the money.
While the officials were looking for his sack of gold, Alberto
gave a power of attorney to an overintelligent lawyer who worded
his authority so that it gave him the right to do everything
which his principal himself could have done "personally, legally
and ecclesiastically." From some source outside, but not from the
brother, the attorney heard that Mrs. Rizal had had money belonging
to Alberto, for in the extensive sugar-purchasing business which she
carried on she handled large sums and frequently borrowed as much as
five thousand pesos from this brother. Anxious to get his hands on
money, he instituted a charge of theft against her, under his power of
attorney and acting in the name of his principal. Mrs. Rizal's attorney
demurred to such a charge being made without the man who had lent the
money being at all consulted, and held that a power of attorney did
not warrant such an action. In time the intelligent Supreme Court
heard t
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