In the collective mind of the colony’s general public, the Claveria Decree issued last November 21 shall merely be a simple census instrument. But for Corregidor Loncoise Rivera, and now for his so-called friend, too, it has been revealed by the Governor-General himself that all this has been an elaborate roost to expunge the names of the enemies of the Crown and secure the very existence of the royal exiles which the Corregidor cannot afford to be put in any form of danger ever since the Carlista wars began.
It has been Loncoise’s secret prayers that the royal exiles shall live their lives in these remote Palawan islands peacefully, harmoniously with the natives. But, somehow, he realizes how he was very wrong to harbor such expectations. A clash of worlds is inevitable. And, like a valu
