rn to his plantation. Pedro and
Miralda were directed to remain in an adjoining apartment to that which
had been the scene of this singular procedure. Count Almonte mounted his
horse, and, with a single attendant, soon passed out of the city gates.
But hardly had he passed the corner of the Paseo, when a dozen
musketeers fired a volley upon him, and he fell a corpse upon the road!

His body was quietly removed, and the captain of the guard, who had
witnessed the act, made a minute upon his order as to the time and
place, and, mounting his horse, rode to the governor's palace, entering
the presence chamber just as Pedro and Miralda were once more summoned
before the governor.

"Excelencia," said the officer, returning the order, "it is executed!"

"Is the count dead?"

"Excelencia, yes."

"Proclaim, in the usual manner, the marriage of Count Almonte and
Miralda Estalez, and also that she is his legal widow, possessed of his
titles and estates. See that a proper officer attends her to the count's
estate, and enforces this decision." Then, turning to Pedro Mantanez, he
said, "No man nor woman in this island is so humble but that they may
claim justice of Tacon!"

The story furnishes its own moral.

CHAPTER XIII.

Consumption of tobacco--The universal cigar--Lady smokers--The
fruits of Cuba--Flour a prohibited article--The royal palm--West
Indian trees--Snakes, animals, etc.--The Cuba blood-hound--Mode of
training him--Remarkable instinct--Importation of slaves--Their
cost--Various African tribes--Superstitious
belief--Tattooing--Health of the negroes--Slave laws of the
island--Food of the negroes--Spanish law of emancipation--General
treatment of the slaves.

The consumption of tobacco,[47] in the form of cigars, is absolutely
enormous in the island. Every man, woman and child, seems to smoke; and
it strikes one as rather peculiar, to say the least of it, to see a lady
smoking her cigarito in the parlor, or on the verandah; but this is very
common. The men, of all degrees, smoke, and smoke everywhere; in the
houses, in the street, in the theatre, in the cafes, in the
counting-room; eating, drinking, and, truly, it would seem, sleeping,
they smoke, smoke, smoke. The slave and his master, the maid and her
mistress, boy and man,--all, all smoke; and it is really odd that
vessels don't scent Havana far out at sea before they heave in sight of
its headlands. No true Havanese e