How many times have I not longed to approach your Makaraig, your Isagani! Sometimes I thought of their death, I wished to destroy them--" Simoun checked himself.
"Here's why I let you live, Basilio, and by such imprudence I expose myself to the risk of being some day betrayed by you.

But you know who I am, you know how much I must have suffered--then believe in me! You are not of the common crowd, which sees in the jeweler Simoun the trader who incites the authorities to commit abuses in order that the abused may buy jewels.

I am the Judge who wishes to castigate this system by making use of its own defects, to make war on it by flattering it.

I need your help, your influence among the youth, to combat these senseless desires for Hispanization, for assimilation, for equal rights.

By that road you will become only a poor copy, and the people should look higher.