III
RIZAL AFTER RIZAL IN FRANCE
Beyond his Masonic connection, Rizal was also known to the French intellectual elite. In 1888, the Revue d'Anthropologie mentioned the publication of Rizal's presentation on Tagal versification at the Berliner Gesellschaft für Anthropologie.130 Two years later, in 1890, the respectable Revue d'Histoire Diplomatique cited his edition of Morga's Sucesos in its bibliographic section.131
A.
RIZAL’S EXECUTION VIEWED FROM FRANCE But it was the Philippine insurgency and Rizal’s trial that grabbed the attention of the French newspapers. Plauchut was the first to describe the motivations for the rebellion in the daily Le Temps (14 October 1896), noted the increasing frequency of political unrest in the Philippines since 1812, the popularity of Masonry among the local elite, the behavior of religious orders, and the lack of freedom of Filipinos as a whole. Presenting Rizal as “a creole of unusual intelligence”, Plauchut analyzed his arrest upon his arrival from Spain as both retaliation for Noli Me Tangere and a precaution against the spread of insurgency. Moreover, Plauchut wrote about the revolutionary program as published in the leaflet Kalayaan, adding that in case of a rebellion by the Tagal troops, Spain would be unable to reconquer the country. On 31 December 1896, L’Univers132—a Catholic newspaper— announced, in a few lines and without giving any explanation, that Rizal had been sentenced to death and that on 29 December 1896, he entered ‘into chapel’ (i.e. to prepare for eternal life) assisted by Jesuit priests. Le Matin,133 on 26 December 1896, wrote “One expects the death sentence of the famous agitator Rizal by the war council”, thus implicitly supporting the death sentence. On the contrary, the anticlerical newspaper Le Radical134 (1 January 1897) announced Rizal’s execution, adding that Jesuits’ efforts to obtain a confession on the conspiracy remained in vain, and that Rizal requested, in extremis, to marry his Canadian (sic!) mistress.135 81
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