General Merritt took possession of the palace of the governor-general, overlooking the river, a commodious establishment, with a pretentious gate on the street, a front yard full of shrubbery and rustling with trees, a drive for carriages and doors for their occupants at the side and a porte cochere, as the general said with a twinkle of his eye, for the steam launch which was a perquisite of the Governor.  The commanding general of the Philippine expedition enjoyed the life on the river, along which boats were constantly passing, carrying country supplies to the city and returning.  The capacity of canoes to convey fruit and vegetables and all that the market called for was an unexpected disclosure.  There were unfailing resources up the river or a multitude of indications were inaccurate.  The General’s palace is more spacious than convenient; the dining room designed for stately banquets, but the furniture of the table was not after the manner of feasts, though the best the country afforded, and the supply of meat improved daily, while the fruit told of the kindly opulence of the tropics.

There was a work of art in the palatial headquarters that the commanding general highly appreciated—­a splendid but somber painting of the queen regent in her widow’s weeds, holding the boy king as a baby on her right shoulder, her back turned to the spectator, gloomy drapery flowing upon the carpet, her profile and pale brow and dark and lustrous hair shown, her gaze upon the child and his young eyes fixed upon the spectator.  This picture has attracted more attention than any other in Manila, and the city is rich in likenesses of the queen mother and the royal boy, who, without fault have upon them the heavy sorrows of Spain in an era of misfortune and humiliation; and it will take some time for the Spanish people, highly or lowly placed, to realize that the loss of colonies, as they have held them, is a blessing to the nation and offers the only chance of recuperation and betterment in Spain’s reputation and relations with the world.

The governor-general’s palace, with General Merritt for General, was a workshop, and the highly decorated apartments, lofty and elaborate, were put to uses that had an appearance of being incongruous.  The cot of the soldier, shrouded in a mosquito bar, stood in the midst of sumptuous furniture, before towering mirrors in showy frames, and from niches looked down marble statues that would have been more at home in the festal scenes of pompous life in the sleepy cities of dreamy lands.  There was no more striking combination than a typewriting machine mounted on a magnificent table, so thick and resplendent with gold that it seemed one mass of the precious metal—­not gilt, but solid bullion—­and the marble top had the iridescent glow of a sea shell.  This was in the residence of the General, his dining and smoking rooms and bedrooms for himself and staff, the actual headquarters being next door in the residence