In short, that was a punishment from heaven upon those who resisted the demands of his corporation. If Cabesang Tales, instead of wandering about his fields, had stayed at home, he would not have been captured. If there are tulisanes, the fault is not his, it is not his duty to run them down-that belongs to the Civil Guard. True it was that if he had not entered the complaint, perhaps the arms would not have been taken up, and poor Tales would not have been captured but he, Fray Clemente, had to look after his own safety, and that Tales had a way of staring at him as if picking out a good target in some part of his body. The friar-administrator shrugged his shoulders: he had nothing to do with it, it was a matter of tulisanes and he had merely done his duty. He had chased the tulisanes whenever he could, and when they captured Cabesang Tales he had organized an expedition and brought into the town, with their arms bound behind them, five or six rustics who looked suspicious, so if Cabesang Tales did not show up it was because he was not in the pockets or under the skins of the prisoners, who were thoroughly shaken out. The lieutenant of the Civil Guard gave no sign: he had received an order to take up all the arms and he had performed his duty.
No one was to blame, and no one need lay it on his conscience. When the news of this misfortune became known in the town, some lamented it and others shrugged their shoulders.