The Campaign in Northern Luzon.--The American generals now determined upon a strategic campaign. General MacArthur was to command an advance up the railroad from Calumpit upon Tarlac; General Lawton, with a flying column of swift infantry and cavalry, was to make a flanking movement eastward through Nueva Ecija and hem the Filipino forces in upon the east. Meanwhile, General Wheaton was to convey a force by transport to the Gulf of Lingayen, to throw a cordon across the Ilocano coast that should cut off the retreat of the Filipino army northward. As a strategic movement, this campaign was only partially successful. MacArthur swept northward, crushing the Filipino line on his front, his advance being led by the active regiment of General J. Franklin Bell. Lawton's column scoured the country eastward, marching with great rapidity and tremendous exertions. Swollen rivers were crossed with great loss of life, and the column, cutting loose from its supplies, was frequently in need of food. It was in this column that the Filipino first saw with amazement the great American cavalry horse, so large beside the small pony of the Philippines. Lawton's descent was so swift that the Philippine government and staff narrowly escaped capture. On the night of November 11th, the Filipino generals held their last council of war at Bayambang on the Rio Agno, and resolved upon dispersal. Meanwhile, Wheaton had landed at San Fabian, upon the southern Ilocano coast, but his force was insufficient to establish an effective cordon, and on the night of November 15th Aguinaldo, with a small party of ministers and officers, closely pursued by the cavalry of Lawton under the command of General Young, slipped past, through the mountains of Pozorubio and Rosario, and escaped up the Ilocano coast. Then began one of the most exciting pursuits in recent wars. The chase never slackened, except in those repeated instances when for the moment the trail of the Filipino general was lost. From Candon, Aguinaldo turned eastward through the comandancias of Lepanto and Bontoc, into the wild Igorrote country of the Cordillera Central. The trail into Lepanto leads over the lofty mountains through the precipitous Tila Pass. On the summit, in what was regarded as an impregnable position, Gregorio del Pilar, little more than a boy, but a brigadier-general, with a small force of soldiers, the remnant of his command, attempted to cover the retreat of his president. But a battalion of the 33d Infantry, under Major March, carried the pass, with the total destruction of Pilar's command, he himself falling amid the slain.