peremptorily instructed to crush the mutinous spirit
of the Cuban militia, and not allow them to drag Spain into a conflict
with the United States. Acting upon the instructions of Castelar,
Jovellar gave up the filibuster vessels, and those of the crew and
passengers who had not been summarily shot by General Burriel. Castelar
always prided himself on having terminated this incident without too
much damage to the prestige of Spain.

At the end of 1873 Castelar had reason to be satisfied with the results
of his efforts, with the military operations in the peninsula, with the
assistance he was getting from the middle classes and even from many of
the political elements of the Spanish revolution that were not
republican. On the other hand, on the eve of the meeting of the federal
Cortes, he could indulge in no illusions as to what he had to expect
from the bulk of the republicans, who openly dissented from his
conservative and conciliatory policy, and announced that they would
reverse it on the very day the Cortes met. Warnings came in plenty, and
no less a personage than the man he had made captain-general of Madrid,
General Pavia, suggested that, if a conflict arose between Castelar and
the majority of the Cortes, not only the garrison of Madrid and its
chief, but all the armies in the field and their generals, were disposed
to stand by the president. Castelar knew too well what such offers meant
in the classic land of _pronunciamientos_, and he refused so flatly that
Pavia did not renew his advice. The sequel is soon told. The Cortes met
on the 2nd of January 1874. The intransigent majority refused to listen
to a last eloquent appeal that Castelar made to their patriotism and
common sense, and they passed a vote of censure. Castelar resigned. The
Cortes went on wrangling for a day and night until, at daybreak on the
3rd of January 1874, General Pavia forcibly ejected the deputies, closed
and dissolved the Cortes, and called up Marshal Serrano to form a
provisional government.

Castelar kept apart from active politics during the twelve months that
Serrano acted as president of the republic. Another _pronunciamiento_
finally put an end to it in the last week of December 1874, when
Generals Campos at Sagunto, Jovellar at Valencia, Primo de Rivera at
Madrid, and Laserna at Logrono, proclaimed Alphonso XII. king of Spain.
Castelar then went into voluntary exile for fifteen months, at the end
of which he was elected deputy f