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General Miles wavered between the choice of the island of Porto Rico and Puerto Principe, a city in the interior and somewhat east of the middle of Cuba; the Department hesitated between Tunas on the south coast of Cuba, within touch of the insurgents, and Mariel on the north, the seizure of which would be the first step in a siege of Havana.
"It is humiliating, it is base, to submit to be the tool of a Del Ferice we all know who and what Del Ferice was, and how he came by his title of count, and how he got his fortune a spy, an intriguer! In a good cause? Perhaps. I was not born then, nor you either, Signor Principe, and we do not know what the world was like, when it was quite another world. That is not a reason for serving a spy!"
The mean breadth of the island, on four-fifths of its length, between the Havannah and Puerto Principe, is 15 leagues. In the best cultivated part, between the Havannah and Batabano, the isthmus is only eight sea leagues. Cuba has a circumference of coast of 520 leagues, of which 280 belong to the south shore, between Cape San Antonio and Punta Maysi.
Others say, that the islands of St Thomas and de Principe are the Hesperides, and not the Antilles; which is the more probable, as these ancient navigators only sailed along the coast, not daring to pass through the main ocean, having no compass, nor any means of taking altitudes for their guidance.
I suppose I might go down on my knees to the Pope and ask his Holiness for another title for the privilege of being called something, Principe di Cavolfiore, if you like. But I will not do it. I will die as Leone Saracinesca. You can give Giovanni your old title, if you please it is yours to give." "He shall have it if he wants it. What does it matter? I can be Donna Corona."
To go back into the room would be madness; since he did not love her, it would almost be an insult. He bent his head and walked slowly down the corridor. He had not gone far, when he was confronted by a small dark figure that stopped the way. He recognised Maria Consuelo's elderly maid. "I beg your pardon, Signore Principe," said the little black-eyed woman. "You will allow me to say a few words?
"If you will have patience Signor Principe, I will be at your disposal in five minutes." Orsino was obliged to be satisfied and sat down again by Contini. He told him the news of Del Ferice's wife. "That will make matters worse," said Contini. "It will not improve them," answered Orsino indifferently.
General Campos, the Spanish commander, had declared that Puerto Principe would never rise against Spain, and he proposed at once a plan to make it doubly sure.
Thus, in sailing N.E. by N. from near Port Principe, Columbus had approached within a short distance of Isabella. That island was then, according to his calculations, thirty-seven leagues from Port Principe; and San Salvador was forty-five leagues from the same point.
Opposite that is another really beautiful park, from the western side of which runs a broad street that leads to the Paseo de Carlos Tercero, formerly the Paseo de Tacon, one of the monuments left to his own memory by one of Cuba's most noted Spanish rulers. The Paseo runs westward to El Castillo del Principe, originally a fortress but now a penitentiary.
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