THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR. 208 Alfaro is said to have offered alarge sum for his life,but the attempted bribe was rejected. The others died bravely. They were placed on their kneesagainst a wall,bound hand andfoot ;but Varona and Ryan struggled to their feet, and stood facing the firing party. As soon as they were dead a mob of Spanish irregulars cut off their heads and paraded them onpikes through the streets of Santiago.

Next day fourteen other Cuban officers were vengeance when the news arrived of the massacreatSantiago. "Remember the Virginias/" would have been as popular a war-cry as "Rememberthe Maine!" becamein the war of 1898. General Sherman, th'-m in command of the United States army, declared that he was ready for a campaign in Cuba. But General Grant, the President, was anxious to avoid a rupture with Spain, and accepted the explanations offered from Madrid. Castelar agreed to HEADQUARTERS OF THE SPANISH ARMY AT HAVANA.

sentenced and shot. Then Captain Fry andhis officers and crew were brought to trial. Invain theyprotestedthat they were Americancitizens. Fry and thirty-six others were sentenced, and shared thefate of their passengers. TheBritish and Americanconsuls and a British navalofficer in command of a gunboat in the harbour had from the first protested against these proceedings. All that they couldobtain was a cessation of the butchery when the executions had gone thus far. Then the long-delayed message from Madrid arrived, and savedthe hundred refugees who werestillawaiting trial.

In the United States there was a loud cry for make what reparation was possible. 1he remaining prisoners were set at liberty,the La.ltdisinantled Virginias was handed over to an American warship, and a Spanish squ saluted the Stars and Stripes. So, after someweeksof wildexcitement, the affair ended. But the fate of the men who were slain by Burriel at Santiago has neverbeen forgotten in theUnited States, and the "massacre of the gained for the Spaniards a reputation for ruthless cruelty, and served in later years to win ready credence for even exaggerated or untrue reports of Spanish atrocities in Cuba.

American intervention in 1873 would have