Page:Vol 6 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/238

218 Maximilian had been assigned a civil list of $1,500,000, like his predecessor Agustin I.; but in view of the financial distress, he now renounced two thirds of this sum, Charlotte relinquishing half of her allowance. The sacrifice hardly affected them, for their mode of living was extremely simple for a court. The loss fell rather upon officials of the household, and upon benevolent objects and the poor, for whom the list had mainly been expended." Both of them were imbued with a noble but misguided ambition for all that was good and just, and they were courageous in following this bent. Charlotte had a more nervous energy, as was displayed in her assiduous attention to public affairs, and in her disinterested application to schools, charities, and other institutions. She would personally examine scholars and distribute rewards, enter the hospitals and cheer the sick with a kind word, decorate the soldier whose bravery deserved the medal, and charm the multitude with her gracious manner. The gallant Mexicans could not fail to show devotion in return, the more stolid Indians being mollified by the marked intimacy with which she honored one of their own race, as one of her maids of honor. Like them, she delighted in flowers, and found one of her greatest pleasures in supervising the garden, leaving also a beautiful record of her taste in the blooming aspect of the Paseo and the palace-ground.

The imperial couple had at first taken up their abode in the national palace at Mexico, dating in foundation from or before the time of Cortés, and consecrated by a long line of viceregal residents. In