crew grew wild with
enthusiasm, while Admiral Sampson embraced him in the warmth of his
greeting. As for his comrades, they were fairly swallowed up in the
delirious delight of the men. Thus ended one of the most gallant deeds of
that short war.

It must be said, however, that, skilfully as it had been managed, the
effort to close the port proved a failure. Though the sunken ship closed
part of the channel, there was room enough to pass beside her, this being
strikingly proved on the morning of July 3, when the squadron which Hobson
had sought to bottle up came steaming down the channel past the sunken
"Merrimac" and put out to sea, where it started on a wild fight for
freedom. The result of this venture does not need to be retold, and it
must suffice to say that a few hours later all the Spanish ships were
shell-riddled wrecks on the Cuban shore, and Cervera and all who survived
of his men were prisoners in American hands. But the admiral was as much
of a hero as a captive, for his captors could not soon forget his generous
treatment of Hobson and his men.

***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORICAL TALES - THE ROMANCE OF REALITY - VOLUME III***

CREDITS

October 9, 2006

Posted to Project Gutenberg
Joshua Hutchinson and
The Online Distributed Proofreading Team

A WORD FROM PROJECT GUTENBERG

This file should be named 19503.txt or 19503.zip.

This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:

http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/9/5/0/19503/

Updated editions will replace the previous one -- the old editions will be
renamed.

Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no one
owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation (and
you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without permission
and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, set forth in the
General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to copying and
distributing Project Gutenberg{~TRADE MARK SIGN~} electronic works to protect the Project
Gutenberg{~TRADE MARK SIGN~} concept and trademark. Project Gutenberg is a registered
trademark, and may not be used if you charge for the eBooks, unless you
receive specific permission. If you do not charge anything for copies of
this eBook, complying with the rules is very easy. You may use this eBook
for nearly any purpose such as creation of derivative works, report