Page:Our Sister Republic - Mexico.djvu/241

Rh they were conversing. Miramon called out to Maximilian:

"Emperor: I beg you to prepare for death; I tell you that they will certainly shoot us!"

Maximilian replied confidently:

"No, they dare not do it: they may shoot you possibly, but Don Benito will not let me be killed. He will send me either to the United States or to Europe!"

Miramon shrugged his shoulders and replied:

"I assure you that you are deceiving yourself; they will certainly shoot us all!"

In Maximilian's room I saw a hole in the floor where the pavement had been taken up, as if to effect an escape into the room below; but could not learn whether this was made during the time that he was there confined or subsequently.

In company with Señor Dueñas, I rode out to see the spot where the three met their death. On the north-eastern slope of the low, rocky hill-side, facing the city, a rude barrier of adobes had been thrown up to stop the bullets, and here the carriage halted. Gen. Escobedo, with a motion of the hand, directed Maximilian to come down. The puppet Emperor, unaccustomed to such treatment from those he regarded as the dust of the earth, gave him a look of doubt which finally changed to a scowl, descended hesitatingly, and walked mechanically toward the summit of the hill. Miramon arrived next, and, seeing that Maximilian was going wrong, called him back. They stood at first with Maximilian in the center, but the position was changed, and when the troops drew up on the hill below to fire upon them, Maximilian stood on the west, Miramon next, and Mejia on the east. Maximilian, from a