retreat, the rebels sent him
an audacious message offering to spare the lives of his people if he
would surrender their arms. The general's reply was in the negative,
adding that if he once reached Santo Tomas not a stick or stone of
it would he leave to mark its site. This defiant answer nonplussed
the rebels, who had private interests to consider. To save their
property they sent another message to General Monet, assuring him
that he would not be further molested; and to guarantee their promise
they sent him the son of a headman as hostage, whose life they said
he could take if they broke their word. That night was, therefore,
passed, without attack, at Mandaling, around which outposts were
established and trenches occupied. The following day the retreating
column and the refugees reached Macabebe safely, [197] but what became
of their leader at this crisis we must leave to future historians to
explain. Some nine months afterwards the acts of two generals were
inquired into by a court of honour in Spain; one of them was disgraced,
[198] and the other, who was accused of having abandoned his whole
party to escape alone in disguise, was acquitted.

General Augusti's wife and family were chivalrously escorted
from Macabebe, where they were quite safe, by a loyal Philippine
volunteer named Blanco (the son of a planter in Pampanga), who was
afterwards promoted to effective rank of colonel in Spain. They were
conducted from the Hagonoy marshes to the Bay of Manila and found
generous protection from the Americans, who allowed them to quit the
Islands. The Spanish garrisons in the whole of La Laguna and Pampanga
had surrendered to the rebels, who were in practical possession of
two-thirds of Luzon Island. General Augusti was personally inclined
to capitulate, but was dissuaded from doing so by his officers.

Several American generals arrived with reinforcements, more were
_en route_, and about the middle of July the Commander-in-Chief,
Maj.-General Wesley Merritt, reached the Islands and remained
there until the end of the following month, that is to say, for
about 10 or 12 days after the Spanish surrender and the American
military occupation of Manila were accomplished facts. On the way
out from San Francisco to Manila some American ships called at the
Ladrone Islands and brought the Spanish garrison of about 40 men
prisoners. The surrender of the capital had been again demanded
and refused, for the Spaniards were far from