ecollection of her daughter's
fate, and then, by some peculiar mental process, nothing would console
the unhappy mother but the presence and companionship of her son and
Jack; and if the lads happened to be both absent when these paroxysms of
revived memory occurred, the poor lady quickly became plunged into a
condition of such abysmal despair and such maniacal violence that she
was for the time being a menace to herself and everybody else. Nobody
but Carlos or Jack seemed to have the power of soothing her, and
sometimes the combined efforts of both were needed: thus it came about
that many months passed, during which the two youths felt themselves
constrained to remain within call, and to devote themselves to the task
of alleviating the misery of the unhappy lady.

Meanwhile, the rebellion, which had arisen in the first instance in the
province of Santiago, was for some time confined to the eastern end of
the island. At the moment of its outbreak Spain had a garrison of some
seventeen thousand men in Cuba, which was an amply sufficient force to
have stamped out the rising, had the authorities dealt with it
energetically. But they either could not, or would not, see, until it
was too late, that serious trouble was impending; and when at length
this fact was recognised, and the garrison raised to some thirty
thousand men, the rebellion had made such headway that the rebels
already had a force of four thousand men in the field, with Maximo Gomez
as its Commander-in-chief, and Antonio Maceo as second in command. At
this time, however, very few whites had actually taken up arms in the
revolutionary cause, for Gomez was a native of San Domingo, while Maceo
was a mulatto, and the whites in Cuba entertained the same objection to
serving under coloured men that is to be found practically all the world
over. But this was more than compensated for by the great accession of
coloured recruits attracted to the insurgent ranks by the appearance of
Maceo in a position of authority. At the same time secret committees
were formed in every town in Cuba for the purpose of preaching the
gospel of revolt, with the result that the whole province of Santiago
and the greater part of Puerto Principe quickly became aflame.

General Martinez Campos, the Capitan-General of the island, at length
began to realise the increasing gravity of the situation, and sent to
his home government a report to the effect that, in consequence of the
rapid s