Page:Vol 6 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/319

 

the most favored of Maximilian's officers was Colonel Miguel Lopez, a tall, portly man, of fine presence, strikingly attired in the rich uniform of the Empress dragoons. With blond complexion, bluish eyes, fair mustaches, and short imperial, he looked anything but a Mexican, although possessing all their attributes, including fine manners and flowing speech. The good graces of the emperor had roused against him a pronounced jealousy, especially among Mexicans, with whom his foreign appearance did not attract sympathy; but they had also good reason to dislike him, for two acts of treason stood recorded against him; and lately, when the monarch wished to add to his favors by making Lopez a general, the leading officers protested and exposed him. The confidence of

(293)