These half-starved wretches, pale, lean and ghostly looking, many of them sick with fever and other ailments, none of them with a cent of money, were a sickening sight to the American troops whom General Anderson sent ashore to investigate their circumstances and conditions. Of course the healthier ones were marched out and killed first. Some of them began to cry when the American officers, pushing the Filipino sentries aside, poked their vigorous manly faces through the openings of the massive doors to see who and what was on the inside; but most of them propped themselves up on one elbow and held out the other hand for something to eat. Others indicated by motions that they wanted paper and pencils, so as to write letters home, telling their loved ones in far-off Spain that they were still alive, and asking for money. As the Americans began to empty their haversacks and hand hard-tack and Boston baked beans to them, some of the prisoners seized them by the fingers and kissed the backs of their hands in grateful homage for their kindness. A few of the more ignorant ones, who had heard so much about the cruelty of the American soldiers, and who, upon sight of our officers, believing the end was near, had sought a kneeling attitude and begun to pray, gradually sank back into a reclining posture and held out their hands for a morsel of food. The Filipino guards sulked when they were displaced by the American sentries, and some of them had to be forced from their posts of fiendish duty at the point of the bayonet. They considered these Spaniards as reprisals, constituting their own private property, with whom they could do as they pleased without any justifiable interference on the part of anybody. Marie Sampalit slapped an American private who had been sent to displace a Filipino sentry whom she had just stationed at one of the prison doors. He promptly knocked her down with the butt of his rifle. What she said in reply he could not understand. CHAPTER IV. THE INTERVAL After avenging her lover's death, Marie returned again to Manila where she remained at home until the Filipino uprising against the American troops in the spring of 1899. During this interval of nine months, she daily frequented the places of rendezvous of the American troops stationed in and around Manila. She also went to the officers' homes in the city where their wives and children were stopping. She did their washing, and cared for the children. Her congeniality made her a favorite. Some of the American ladies offered to bring her back to America with them for a house-hold servant.