when they found that one of these ladies was a
countrywoman of their own, an American citizen.

Word was sent at once to Consul-General Fitzhugh Lee, and then the
correspondents clubbed together, and bought some beds and small comforts,
and sent them to the ladies.

General Lee at once tried to help the American lady, Mrs. Rodriguez, and
finally got permission for her release.

The other ladies said they wished they were Americans, that they might
also be helped out of their miserable position.

These ladies do not as yet know why they have been arrested. They all have
relatives in the insurgent army, and suppose that is the reason for their
punishment.

* * * * *

The _Three Friends_, the filibustering steamer that has been in so much
trouble, will soon know her fate.

She is to be proceeded against for piracy.

The officers, agents, and lawyers are not included in the new case, and so
there is no danger of any of them having to pay the penalty of piracy,
which the law says is hanging.

The vessel alone is the guilty party, and if her guilt is proved, she will
be confiscated, which means, taken away from her owners.

We spoke about the trial of the tug _Dauntless_ and the _Three Friends_ in
No. 14 of THE GREAT ROUND WORLD, and told how Judge Locke had set
them at liberty, because he said that if no state of war existed in Cuba,
the tugs could not be guilty of breaking any of the laws between nations.

Attorney-General Harmon says that this decision of Judge Locke's makes the
_Three Friends_ guilty of piracy, for in time of peace she fired a gun on
the subjects of a friendly nation.

It seems that whichever way they fix it, the _Three Friends_ is in
trouble.

The whole case rests upon the statement, made in certain New York
newspapers, that the _Three Friends_ had a Hotchkiss gun in her bows, with
which she fired on the Spanish gunboat that tried to prevent her landing
her party.

If this statement is true, the _Three Friends_ is guilty, and will have
some difficulty in escaping from justice. But it is evident that her
owners are going to deny the whole thing, and say that she had no gun on
board.

In Jacksonville, where she will be tried, the people are already saying
that it is foolish to suppose that there was a gun on so small a tug as
the _Three Friends_, and in Washington it is thought unlikely that it can
be proved that a gun was on the boat.

This makes the ma