e slept during the sermon; but her adherents
would answer that the sermon was paid for in advance, and by her,
and that in any affair payment was the prime requisite. At length,
she had driven him from the field completely by presenting to the
church three _andas_ of gilded silver, each one of which cost her
over three thousand pesos. Capitan Tiago hoped that the old woman
would breathe her last almost any day, or that she would lose five or
six of her lawsuits, so that he might be alone in serving God; but
unfortunately the best lawyers of the _Real Audiencia_ looked after
her interests, and as to her health, there was no part of her that
could be attacked by sickness; she seemed to be a steel wire, no doubt
for the edification of souls, and she hung on in this vale of tears
with the tenacity of a boil on the skin. Her adherents were secure in
the belief that she would be canonized at her death and that Capitan
Tiago himself would have to worship her at the altars--all of which
he agreed to and cheerfully promised, provided only that she die soon.

Such was Capitan Tiago in the days of which we write. As for the past,
he was the only son of a sugar-planter of Malabon, wealthy enough,
but so miserly that he would not spend a cent to educate his son,
for which reason the little Santiago had been the servant of a good
Dominican, a worthy man who had tried to train him in all of good
that he knew and could teach. When he had reached the happy stage
of being known among his acquaintances as a _logician_, that is,
when he began to study logic, the death of his protector, soon
followed by that of his father, put an end to his studies and he
had to turn his attention to business affairs. He married a pretty
young woman of Santa Cruz, who gave him social position and helped
him to make his fortune. Dona Pia Alba was not satisfied with buying
and selling sugar, indigo, and coffee, but wished to plant and reap,
so the newly-married couple bought land in San Diego. From this time
dated their friendship with Padre Damoso and with Don Rafael Ibarra,
the richest capitalist of the town.

The lack of an heir in the first six years of their wedded life
made of that eagerness to accumulate riches almost a censurable
ambition. Dona Pia was comely, strong, and healthy, yet it was in
vain that she offered novenas and at the advice of the devout women
of San Diego made a pilgrimage to the Virgin of Kaysaysay [40] in
Taal, distributed alms