diced b Jos e S. Arc a, - non

BISHOP VOLONTERI:FELLOW PASSENGER OF RIZALLeandro Torino SanzOn Sunday, 18 October 1891, Rizal boarded the boat forHongkong at Marseilles.' It was the beginning of the end: he was movingtoward the final stages of his life. Several incidents, politically trivial inthemselves, but serious to his refined and artistic mind, had estranged him fromhis fellow Filipinos and friends editing the forthnightly La Solidaridad andunited in the masonic lodge of the same name.2 At the end of April 1889he had broken his agreement with the vindictive Antonio Ma. Regidor for thelatter's failure to publish the work he had written at the latter's urging andpromise to publish it, a promise not fulfilled when the book was finished.'The delusion over his liberal-minded masonic friends took the form of a letterto Blumentritt on 5 July 1890 in which he exclaims:Minister Sagasta has fallen. Where now are those unselfish services of Becerra?Alas! Do not leave for tomorrow what you can do today! Beautiful words,beautiful words, but words, words, words, as Shakespeare said'When he left Spain on 27 January 1891 he had already stopped writingand taking an active part in the activities of La Solidaridad and withdrawnfrom masonry.' Paradoxically, either out of malice or acting under superiororders, the masons themselves would a few years from now assert duringRizal's trial for rebellion he had introduced this secret society to theFilipinos.6His youthful sweetheart tired of her role of a platonic muse and marriedto an English engineer, Rizal sought to fill the void with a new love whichwas at hand, and which besides could solve his painful economic difficultiesand give him the rich man's leisure to dedicate himself to satisfactoryintellectual pursuits all his life. And yet for precisely religious reasons, herefused this tempting promise of future material well-being.'Mindful of the pain suffered by his family, proud in his dignity or blindbelief that he had acted well, that he had carried out his duties,8 resolved toretire completely from political activity with whose issues and personalitieshe was disillusioned' in search of peace and tranquility, anxious to return to1