“Bravo, bravo!” cried several enthusiastically.

“Good for Sandoval!  Hurrah for the gauntlet!” added others.

“Let them fling down the gauntlet to us!” repeated Pecson disdainfully.  “But afterwards?”

Sandoval seemed to be cut short in his triumph, but with the vivacity peculiar to his race and his oratorical temperament he had an immediate reply.

“Afterwards?” he asked.  “Afterwards, if none of the Filipinos dare to accept the challenge, then I, Sandoval, in the name of Spain, will take up the gauntlet, because such a policy would give the lie to the good intentions that she has always cherished toward her provinces, and because he who is thus faithless to the trust reposed in him and abuses his unlimited authority deserves neither the protection of the fatherland nor the support of any Spanish citizen!”

The enthusiasm of his hearers broke all bounds.  Isagani embraced him, the others following his example.  They talked of the fatherland, of union, of fraternity, of fidelity.  The Filipinos declared that if there were only Sandovals in Spain all would be Sandovals in the Philippines.  His eyes glistened, and it might well be believed that if at that moment any kind of gauntlet had been flung at him he would have leaped upon any kind of horse to ride to death for the Philippines.

The “cold water” alone replied:  “Good, that’s very good, Sandoval.  I could also say the same if I were a Peninsular, but not being one, if I should say one half of what you have, you yourself would take me for a filibuster.”

Sandoval began a speech in protest, but was interrupted.

“Rejoice, friends, rejoice!  Victory!” cried a youth who entered at that moment and began to embrace everybody.

“Rejoice, friends!  Long live the Castilian tongue!”

An outburst of applause greeted this announcement.  They fell to embracing one another and their eyes filled with tears.  Pecson alone preserved his skeptical smile.

The bearer of such good news was Makaraig, the young man at the head of the movement.  This student occupied in that house, by himself, two rooms, luxuriously furnished, and had his servant and a cochero to look after his carriage and horses.  He was of robust carriage, of refined manners, fastidiously dressed, and very rich.  Although studying law only that he might have an academic degree, he enjoyed a reputation for diligence, and as a logician in the scholastic way had no cause to envy the most frenzied quibblers of the University faculty.  Nevertheless he was not very far behind in regard to modern ideas and progress, for his fortune enabled him to have all the books and magazines that a watchful censor was unable to keep out.  With these qualifications and his reputation for courage, his fortunate associations in his earlier years, and his refined and delicate courtesy, it was not strange that he should exercise such great influence over his associates and that he should have been chosen to carry out such a difficult undertaking as that of the instruction in Castilian.