Page:Vol 6 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/125

Rh Notwithstanding the clearly expressed condition of acceptance, Arrangoiz, among others, intimates that Maximilian ever manifested an extreme eagerness for the glittering bauble from Anáhuac. Such was not, however, the impression left on the commission, to judge from their letters, filled with the most glowing accounts of the wealth and magnificence surrounding the archduke. For a brother of one of the leading sovereigns of the world, with a certain claim upon the Austrian crown, with great palaces and estates — for such a man to abandon this lofty position, and leave behind the centres of culture and society, for an insecure throne in a remote and half-barbaric country, torn by civil war and offering comparatively fewer comforts, this seemed to them a sacrifice. But they forgot for the moment the hollowness of much of the pomp spread before them, that poverty lay behind in the shape of pressing debts, and that family discord aided ambition.

Miramare, the residence of the emperor elect, was certainly worthy of the praise lavished upon it. Upon a tiny promontory, not far from Trieste, rose the castle out of the waters of the Adriatic. Behind extended the gently sloping hills, transformed from craggy rocks into a paradise of lawns and groves, flower-beds and groups of rare plants, with fountains and brooks fed from the wooded crests above. The place had been made additionally attractive to the Mexicans by sumptuous banquets, during one of which they beheld from the sea the palace and grounds illuminated, with a predominance of Mexican national colors in various designs.

Personally, the archduke impressed them with his majestic bearing, and tall, imposing figure, six feet