called off from the attack on the estate and
formed up in square to receive them. But the Spaniards might as well
have attempted to stop the wind as to stem the onrush of those fierce
and determined men, who were, moreover, in overwhelming numbers; they
had time only to pour in a couple of hasty, ill-directed volleys, and
then the Cubans--armed, some with rifles, and others with swords, cane-
knives, machetes, scythe blades, pikes, hatchets, ay, and even crowbars
and smiths' hammers--swept down upon and overwhelmed them. For the
space of perhaps three minutes there was a hideous melee, a confused
mass of men struggling, yelling, shrieking; a popping of pistol shots, a
whirling and flashing of blades in the sun; and then out from the midst
of the confusion there emerged a bare half-dozen of panic-stricken
horsemen, who set spurs to their frantic steeds and galloped for their
lives off that fatal field. Another Spanish force had been wiped out by
the insurgents!

Half an hour later, when the dead had been stripped of their weapons and
ammunition, Antonio Maceo and a little body of his subordinate officers,
using the scaling ladders left on the field by the Spaniards, crossed
the gap in the wrecked bridge, and made their way up to the house for
the purpose of thanking Don Hermoso for the letter of warning which he
had dispatched to them, and with a request for the loan of all the
spades and other tools which he could spare to enable the insurgents to
bury the dead: and by sunset that night a long, low mound of fresh-
turned earth, showing red amid the vivid green of the grass-grown plain,
was all that was left as evidence of the tragedy; while Maceo and his
four thousand patriots were wearily wending their way back to their
mountain fastness, the richer by two six-pounder field guns, a thousand
stand of arms, with a considerable quantity of ammunition, and the
entire spoils of the Spanish camp.

It was subsequently ascertained that General Echague and five of his
staff had succeeded in making good their escape from that field of
slaughter; and as it was anticipated that the Spaniards, infuriated by
their terrible reverse, would be more than likely to seek an early
revenge, Jack and Carlos were kept very busy during the ensuing
fortnight in so far improving the defences of the estate as to render it
practically impregnable. The remains of the wrecked stone bridge were
removed, and a timber drawbridge was built in its p