These "Additions" were really Doctor Rizal's defence before the
court martial which condemned him and pretended to have tried him,
on the charge of having organized revolutionary societies and so
being responsible for the rebellion.
The only counsel permitted him, a young lieutenant selected from the
junior Spanish army officers, risked the displeasure of his superiors
in the few words he did say, but his argument was pitiably weak. The
court scene, where Rizal sat for hours with his elbows corded back of
him while the crowd, unrebuked by the court, clamored for his death,
recalls the stories of the bloody assizes of Judge Jeffreys and of
the bloodthirsty tribunals of the Reign of Terror. He was compelled
to testify himself, was not permitted to hear the testimony given for
the prosecution, no witness dared favor him, much less appear in his
behalf, and his own brother had been tortured, with the thumbscrews
as well as in other mediaeval and modern ways, in a vain endeavor to
extort a confession implicating the Doctor.