n
residence. The huge doors and windows of every apartment are thrown open
to their widest and the interior being brilliantly lighted with gas, the
view from the street is almost as complete as within the premises.
Everybody crowds into the latter, and examines the arrangements of each
chamber with as deep an interest as if they were wandering through an
old baronial mansion with cards of invitation from its absent owner. The
reception-room, the comedor or dining-room, the out-houses round the
patio or court-yard, are carefully inspected by the throng, who are
irrepressible even in respect to the dormitory assigned for the use of
the bridegroom, and that allotted to the bride, and situated in quite a
different quarter.

Everybody's curiosity being satisfied, everybody, save the newly-married
pair and a few black domestics, is wished a 'muy buenas noches,' or,
more correctly speaking (for the hour is 4 A.M.), a very good morning.

CHAPTER XXX.

CUBANS IN NEW YORK.

The Morro Castle again--Summer and Winter--Cuban
Refugees--Filibusters--'Los Laborantes' of New York and their
Work--American Sympathisers.

I am a prisoner in the Morro Castle again, and this time my fellow
captives are more numerous. We occupy separate apartments. The chamber
which has been allotted to me is considerably smaller than that of the
fortress at Santiago. So small that the floor measures barely four feet
in width, and seated in my narrow cot, my head approaches within a few
inches of the ceiling. Don Benigno, his wife, his unmarried daughter,
and the pretty Ermina, together with a score of Cuban families, are all
imprisoned in the same stronghold, whence there is no escape. For we are
encompassed on every side by a moat so deep and so wide that no
engineering skill would avail to connect us with terra firma.

This is, however, not the Havana Morro, nor is it the fortress at
Santiago de Cuba; but an American steamer called the 'Morro Castle' and
bound for New York, where--wind and weather permitting--we shall all
arrive, in little more than four days!

Although the month is January, the atmosphere is still sultry and
oppressive; so much so that most of the passengers prefer to sleep on
deck. But on the morning of the third day of our voyage, there is a
perceptible change in the temperature. The passengers are seen to shiver
and to huddle together in warm corners of the cabin. Everybody has
exchanged his or her summe