taries' and not 'Los Insurrectos' this time,
for a party of volunteers were visible on a distant eminence.

Our black sentinel, however, still persisted in shouting, 'Los
Insurrectos!' The same cry was echoed by other negroes, who, with their
faces tinged with the pale green of a black's fear, came running towards
us with the information that three insurgents were riding within a mile
of our habitation. The statement proved correct, for presently three
horsemen arrived at the farm. All three were armed with revolvers, and
short swords called 'machetes,' and they were attired in brown holland
blouses, buff-coloured shoes, and Panama hats.

One of these men appeared to be suffering great bodily pain, but his
face was so besmeared with dirt and blood, that we could scarcely tell
whether he was a mulatto or a white man. The poor fellow had been
seriously wounded, and groaned in agony as Don Benigno's slaves assisted
him to dismount.

After he had been placed upon a catre in one of our apartments and
revived with a draught of aguardiente, the invalid smiled mournfully
around him, and then, to our unspeakable astonishment, inquired whether
we did not recognise in him Don Benigno's nephew!

I will not describe the scene which followed this disclosure, but I will
endeavour to repeat to you what Tunicu had now to reveal. His first
words caused me great happiness; though the strange tone in which they
were uttered seemed scarcely to correspond with the good news conveyed
in them.

'Your mother,' said he, glancing in my direction, 'is free!'

He now told us how, in spite of his efforts to steal my dear parent, Don
Vicente had succeeded in selling her to a brutal slave-trader, who
contemplated employing her as a common labourer at a coffee plantation,
and how, being aware of this, my lover determined to save her from such
a terrible fate.

Parties of young Cubans were then secretly planning expeditions into the
heart of the country, where their compatriots in arms were concealed,
and this being known to my lover, he lost no time in enrolling himself
among them. A party of these young men were on the eve of departing on
their rebellious or patriotic mission, and as my mother's new master had
already started for his plantation with his recent purchases and
half-a-dozen armed negroes, Tunicu persuaded his companions to help him
to rescue my parent. Well armed, well acquainted with the roads of their
intricate country, and moun