CHAPTER XIV.
DEATH OF EMPIRE AND EMPEROR.
1867
Miguel Lopez the Traitor — His Plot to Betray Maximilian — Seizure of the City — Arrest of Maximilian and his Generals — Imprisonment — — Abdication — Terms Proposed — Court-martial Ordered — Trial and Conviction — Petitions and Intercessions — Execution of Maximilian, Miramon, and Mejía — Effect of Execution in America and Europe — Reflections on the Character and Career of Maximilian
Among 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.[1] 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.[2] The confidence of
- ↑ He had formed one of the escorts of Maximilian when he first arrived in the country, and imanaged especially by his manner to become his favorite. Appointed col of the Emperatriz regiment of cavalry, he remained in intimate contact with tlhe imperial pair, and figured now practically as adjutant of the emperor, intrusted by him with frequent secret missions. The latter had stood golfather to his child. Hans observes that he had big Anglo-American feet. Quer., 72. Salm-Salm speaks of his fascinating manner.
- ↑ By producing a government decree dismissing him from the army for in famous conduct at Tehuacan, during the U. S. invasion in 1847. He was then
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