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24 The Prince's baggage did reach Vera Cruz; Lieutenant H———, of the Austrian Army, who was in command at Paso del Macho, the terminus of the railway from that port, has personally assured the author, that some 200 colis were forwarded under his special charge, and, with the exception of one particular lot that caught fire and was destroyed, all reached their destination. Furthermore, whether or not an order was received at Vera Cruz to stop this baggage, it nevertheless found its way finally on board the "Elizabeth," where it was seen by some of the officers of the "Tacony."

Whichever of the accounts be correct, there was an open rupture between the Prince and the Marshal. The former, rejecting the advice of sterling friends to abdicate, and led away by his anger, by sympathy for his supporters, and by the false representations of the Clerical party, who promised him an army and twenty million dollars to support it, returned westward, and paved the way to his tragic end by shutting himself up in Querétaro. The latter, after a final traitorous overture rejected by General Diaz, returned to France and to the