Page:The rise and fall of the Emperor Maximilian.djvu/216

 CHAPTER XV.

OTICE was given that the new French Embassy was two days' march from the capital. The emperor, resolved to avoid it, hastened his preparations to go down to meet the Empress Charlotte as he had announced to his ministers. But the report had already spread, that the baggage of his household and his retinue had been sent forward to the port of Vera Cruz; and it was well known that the three squadrons of Austrian hussars, which had been recalled to Mexico on the pretext of resting after their fatigues, had already received the order to be ready to mount.

The news of the probable departure of the sovereign produced a great sensation among the inhabitants of Mexico.

History shuts out romance; yet the historian cannot without emotion recount the scene of sorrow which was presented by the last moments which were spent by the emperor in the palace of Chapultepec.

The hour for departure approached; the sovereign, worn out by fever and vanquished by events, thought over all his broken hopes, and longed for his fatherland. Full many a time had he regretted it when his heart had thrilled to the distant war-echoes of Sadowa