hand-in-hand with them. He cabled for more troops to be sent with
which to garrison the reconquered districts and have his army corps
free to stamp out the rebellion, which was confined to the Northern
Provinces. Cuba, which had already drained the Peninsula of over
200,000 men, still required fresh levies to replace the sick and
wounded, and Polavieja's demand was refused. Immediately after
this he cabled that his physical ailments compelled him to resign
the commandership-in-chief, and begged the Government to appoint a
successor. The Madrid journals hostile to him thereupon indirectly
attributed to him a lie, and questioned whether his resignation was
due to ill-health or his resentment of the refusal to send out more
troops. Still urging his resignation, General Fernando Primo de Rivera
was gazetted to succeed him, and Polavieja embarked at Manila for Spain
on April 15, 1897. General Lachambre, as the hero of Cavite, followed
to receive the applause which was everywhere showered upon him in
Spain. As to Polavieja's merits, public opinion was very much divided,
and as soon as it was known that he was on the way, a controversy was
started in the Madrid press as to how he ought to be received. _El
Imparcial_ maintained that he was worthy of being honoured as a 19th
century conquering hero. This gave rise to a volley of abuse on the
other side, who raked up all his antecedents and supposed tendencies,
and openly denounced him as a dangerous politician and the supporter
of theocratic absolutism. According to _El Liberal_ of May 11, Senor
Ordax Avecilla, of the Red Cross Society, stated in his speech at
the Madrid Mercantile Club, "If he (the General) thought of becoming
dictator, he would fall from the heights of his glory to the Hades
of nonentity." His enemies persistently insinuated that he was really
returning to Spain to support the clericals actively. But perhaps the
bitterest satire was levelled against him in _El Pais_ of May 10,
which, in an article headed "The Great Farce," said: "Do you know
who is coming? Cyrus, King of Persia; Alexander, King of Macedonia;
Caesar Augustus; Scipio the African; Gonzalo de Cordova; Napoleon, the
Great Napoleon, conqueror of worlds. What? Oh, unfortunate people,
do you not know? Polavieja is coming, the incomparable Polavieja,
crowned with laurels, commanding a fleet laden to the brim with rich
trophies; it is Polavieja, gentlemen, who returns, discoverer of new
worlds, to lay a