(Photo taken only five minutes before his death.)
Marie returned to Manila where she claimed the reward for having shot the general. The lieutenant who was with her claimed that he did it, and by promising half of the bounty to the corporal for swearing to the lie, he proved it. Meager reports of the affair state that only $7000 of the money was actually paid over. Like Aguinaldo who crept into a cave northwest of Manila and sold out his country during the insurrection of 1896, and then could not collect his fee, so Marie, too, found herself deprived of the compensation for her bloody deed.
Chapter XI.
North-bound
The controversy over the distribution of the fund in Manila for the death in any form of General Lawton permitted the unholy scheme to simmer its way into publicity. The United States authorities employed secret detectives to investigate the matter and if possible to locate the persons who claimed to be responsible for the act. Marie soon found herself under surveillance and she quickly left the city.
Making her way north on horse back along the same route she had taken when on her way to Baler about a year before, she came to the city of San Miguel where one of the hardest battles of the war had been fought. The troops engaged in this fight had become so disorganized that all formation by regiments, companies, etc., had been broken up. Unfortunately, one of the Americans’ dead privates could not be identified. He was buried where he fell, and a board tombstone was placed at the head of his grave, on which was carved this lonely word,
“UNKNOWN”.
As Marie passed over the old field, she saw this grave and read the solemn word on its headstone. “Alas!” she muttered, “I wonder if the same sad fate will some day overtake me.”