so great
was the eagerness to enter it that the waiting list was long and two
or three years' delay was not at all uncommon.

There is a little uncertainty about this period; some writers have
gone so far as to give recollections of childhood incidents of which
Rizal was the hero while he lived in the house of Doctor Burgos,
but the family deny that he was ever in this home, and say that he
has been confused with his brother Paciano.

The greatest influence upon Rizal during this period was the sense of
Spanish judicial injustice in the legal persecutions of his mother,
who, though innocent, for two years was treated as a criminal and
held in prison.

Much of the story is not necessary for this narrative, but the mother's
troubles had their beginning in the attempted revenge of a lieutenant
of the Civil Guard, one of a body of Spaniards who were no credit
to the mother country and whom Rizal never lost opportunity in his
writings of painting in their true colors. This official had been in
the habit of having his horse fed at the Mercado home when he visited
their town from his station in Binan, but once there was a scarcity
of fodder and Mr. Mercado insisted that his own stock was entitled
to care before he could extend hospitality to strangers. This the
official bitterly resented. His opportunity for revenge soon came, and
was not overlooked. A disagreement between Jose Alberto, the mother's
brother in Binan, and his wife, also his cousin, to whom he had been
married when they were both quite young, led to sensational charges
which a discreet officer would have investigated and would assuredly
have then realized to be unfounded. Instead the lieutenant accepted
the most ridiculous statements, brought charges of attempted murder
against Alberto and his sister, Mrs. Rizal, and evidently figured
that he would be able to extort money from the rich man and gratify
his revenge at the same time.

Now comes a disgruntled judge, who had not received the attention at
the Mercado home which he thought his dignity demanded. Out of revenge
he ordered Mrs. Rizal to be conducted at once to the provincial prison,
not in the usual way by boat, but, to cause her greater annoyance,
afoot around the lake. It was a long journey from Kalamba to Santa
Cruz, and the first evening the guard and his prisoner came to
a village where there was a festival in progress. Mrs. Rizal was
well known and was welcomed in the home of one of the promine