Page:The rise and fall of the Emperor Maximilian.djvu/220

 this fresh proof of devotion to me. I am leaving tonight, and if he wishes to write to me, here is the itinerary of my journey.'

At two o'clock in the morning of October 21, three carriages, escorted by three squadrons of Austrian hussars, rolled along the road of La Piedad. Father Fischer, the minister Arroyo, Colonel de Kodolich, and Dr. Bash accompanied the emperor to Orizaba, where a public and definitive resolution (already anticipated in opinion) was to be adopted by the sovereign. That evening Maximilian, who had come to sleep at the hacienda of Zoquiapa, wrote a confidential letter, which an Austrian officer carried at night to the French head-quarters. This letter was only the corollary to the interview between the marshal and M. Herzfeld.

Hacienda de Zoquiapa, October 21, 1866 (evening). My dear Marshal,—To-morrow I propose to place in your hands the documents necessary to put an end to the onerous and perplexing position in which my person as well as the whole of Mexico is now placed. These documents must be kept in reserve until the day which I shall intimate to you by telegraph.

Three points weigh upon my mind, and I desire at once to throw off the responsibility incumbent on me in respect to them.

The first: That the courts-martial cease to interfere in political delinquencies.

The second: That the law of October 3 be revoked de facto.

The third: That there should be no political persecutions on any ground whatever, and that all kinds of hostilities should cease.

I wish you to summon the ministers, Larès, Marin, and Tavera, in order to agree on measures to secure these three points, without allowing the intentions which I have expressed in the first paragraph to transpire ever so little.

I doubt not that you will add this fresh proof of your true friendship to all those which you have before given me, and I