The woman with a stone heart : $b A romance of the Philippine WarCoursey, O. W. (Oscar William)
History
The woman with a stone heart : $b A romance of the Philippine War
Coursey, O. W. (Oscar William)
Philippines -- History -- Revolution, 1896-1898 -- Fiction
Marie had with her three trusted natives from Ilagan. She did not want
to spend another night alone in the mountains. After proceeding up
the Masagan for thirty-five miles to a place where its valley narrows
itself to a gorge, its bed was so strewn with huge boulders that it
became impossible to travel any longer on horseback; therefore, one
of the natives was sent back with the horses, and Marie and the two
others continued the ascent on foot, taking with them such equipment
and provisions as they could conveniently carry.
After many hardships they succeeded in crossing the range in safety
and soon found themselves descending the other side. A Filipino
scouting party was met at the evening of the first day's tramp down
the Pacific slope. They were well supplied with food--thing Marie and
her companions greatly needed. From them it was learned that Aguinaldo
and his body guard and quite a complement of Filipino soldiers were
secreted at the little town of Palanan on a small stream by the same
name, about ten miles back from the coast and lying directly east
of them on the journey which they were pursuing. This party escorted
them to Filipino headquarters, which they reached July 10, 1900.
Marie was cordially welcomed by Aguinaldo, who restored her to a
position on his staff and secured from her the identical information
which he desired relative to the movement of the American troops, and
the very information, strange to say, which led to his own discovery
and capture by General Funston of the American forces in March of
the following year.
Aguinaldo learned from Marie that from the Filipinos' standpoint, the
war around Manila had been a dismal failure. He decided, therefore,
to send one of his trusted generals south by practically the same
route over which Marie had come, with information to the Filipino
troops east and south of Manila to move all their available forces
north with the quickest possible despatch and to place them under his
immediate command so that he might not only render himself immune from
capture, but take the initiative and oppose the American campaign in
the valley of the Cagayan river.
In December, 1900, about three months before his capture by General
Funston, Aguinaldo, having learned that the Americans were making their
way in great numbers into the valley of the Cagayan, asked Marie to
take up duty as a spy again; to recross the Sierra Madre mountains;
visit the American lines; ascertain their number of soldiers on duty
in the valley on the opposite side of the mountains and then to bring
this information to him, so that when reinforcements should arrive
he would know better how to undertake the campaign.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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