do really great things, he was the reverse of a braggart,
and in his remark that he had attempted to do great things without
the capacity for gaining success, one recognizes his remembrance of
his mother's angry prophecy foretelling failure in all he undertook.

His family waited long outside the Governor-General's place to ask
a pardon, but in vain; General Polavieja had to pay the price of his
appointment and refused to see them.

The mother and sisters, however, were permitted to say farewell to
Rizal in the chapel, under the eyes of the death-watch. The prisoner
had been given the unusual privilege of not being tied, but he was
not allowed to approach near his relatives, really for fear that
he might pass some writing to them--the pretext was made that Rizal
might thus obtain the means for committing suicide.

To his sister Trinidad Rizal spoke of having nothing to give her
by way of remembrance except the alcohol cooking lamp which he had
been using, a gift, as he mentioned, from Mrs. Tavera. Then he added
quickly, in English, so that the listening guard would not understand,
"There is something inside."

The other events of Rizal's last twenty-four hours, for he went in to
the chapel at seven in the morning of the day preceding his execution,
are perplexing. What purported to be a detailed account was promptly
published in Barcelona, on Jesuit authority, but one must not forget
that Spaniards are not of the phlegmatic disposition which makes for
accuracy in minute matters and even when writing history they are
dramatically ificlined. So while the truthfulness, that is the intent
to be fair, may not be questioned, it would not be strange if those who
wrote of what happened in the chapel in Fort Santiago during Rizal's
last hours did not escape entirely from the influence of the national
characteristics. In the main their narrative is to be accepted,
but the possibility of unconscious coloring should not be disregarded.

In substance it is alleged that Rizal greeted his old instructors
and other past acquaintances in a friendly way. He asked for copies
of the Gospels and the writings of Thomas-a-Kempis, desired to be
formally married to Josefina, and asked to be allowed to confess. The
Jesuits responded that first it would be necessary to investigate
how far his beliefs conformed to the Roman Catholic teachings. Their
catechizing convinced them that he was not orthodox and a religious
debate ensued in which Riz