Chapter 2: - Page 5 of 7

On the Lower Deck

(English version of “El Filibusterismo”)

Utopia, Utopia! responded Simoun dryly.  The engine is about to meet—in the meantime, I’ll drink my beer.  So, without any word of excuse, he left the two friends.

But what’s the matter with you today that you’re so quarrelsome? asked Basilio.

Nothing.  I don’t know why, but that man fills me with horror, fear almost.

I was nudging you with my elbow.  Don’t you know that he’s called the Brown Cardinal?

The Brown Cardinal?

Or Black Eminence, as you wish.

I don’t understand.

Richelieu had a Capuchin adviser who was called the Gray Eminence; well, that’s what this man is to the General.

Really?

That’s what I’ve heard from a certain person,—who always speaks ill of him behind his back and flatters him to his face.

Does he also visit Capitan Tiago?

From the first day after his arrival, and I’m sure that a certain person looks upon him as a rival—in the inheritance.  I believe that he’s going to see the General about the question of instruction in Castilian.

At that moment Isagani was called away by a servant to his uncle.

Learn this Filipino word:

mabuti ang dilà