Page:The "Trial" of Ferrer - A Clerical Judicial Murder (IA 2916970.0001.001.umich.edu).pdf/34

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The "Trial" of Ferrer.

cite people to join the revolution in Barcclona. Aside from this there is not one single solid accusation of Ferrer's participation in the troubles of Masnou and Premia.

Now, this is the way in which Ferrer explains his alleged conduct in Masnou and Premia de Mar, upon which most of the accusation is based, in a letter he wrote from his jail to his friend Malato:

"On the 28th I went to Masnou, a little village two kilometers from Mas Germinal, to get shaved, as was my custom twice a week. As soon as I entered the barber shop, it filled up with people who wanted to see and speak to me, because there had circulated a rumor, of which I was ignorant, that I was the director of the movement in Barcelona. I soon made them understand that I had no part in it at all, that, on the contrary, I was looking for news from Barcelona to know if the shops were open, because I wished to go and see my publisher as soon as the strike ended. I then asked a certain Puig, who had just said he had succeeded in calming some people who wanted to commit excesses . . . if he wanted to come with me to Premia to find out in what state Barcelona was from the people who had just arrived from there. He accepted and we went to Premia, but the people who came from Barcelona had not been allowed to land yet; seeing which we returned, he to Masnou, I to Montgat. Of course, during the five or ten minutes we stayed in Premia, a lot of people surrounded us asking for news, while we were asking them for the same, as is logical in such circumstances."

The only testimony, therefore, by an eye witness (?) of the leadership of Ferrer in the troubles of Barcelona, rests on the declaration of Colldefrons, which I have put in class 4. As we have seen, this gentleman first published as correspondent a letter in the "Siglo Futuro" (see note 25) in which he said, "and once I saw him captaining a group."