The rise and fall of the Emperor Maximilian/Chapter XV
CHAPTER XV.
Maximilian prepares for Departure—Last Moments at Chapultepec—Arrival of sad News—The Health of the Empress Charlotte—Maximilian resolves to leave—Cowardly Conduct of the Ministers—Marshal Bazaine's Firmness—Maximilian leaves the Capital—His Three last Wishes—His Journey—Peculiarities in Maximilian's Character.
NOTICE was given that the new French Embassy was two days' march from the capital. The emperor, resolved to avoid it, hastened his preparations to go down to meet the Empress Charlotte as he had announced to his ministers. But the report had already spread, that the baggage of his household and his retinue had been sent forward to the port of Vera Cruz; and it was well known that the three squadrons of Austrian hussars, which had been recalled to Mexico on the pretext of resting after their fatigues, had already received the order to be ready to mount.
The news of the probable departure of the sovereign produced a great sensation among the inhabitants of Mexico.
History shuts out romance; yet the historian cannot without emotion recount the scene of sorrow which was presented by the last moments which were spent by the emperor in the palace of Chapultepec.
The hour for departure approached; the sovereign, worn out by fever and vanquished by events, thought over all his broken hopes, and longed for his fatherland. Full many a time had he regretted it when his heart had thrilled to the distant war-echoes of Sadowa and Lissa! A telegraphic despatch, forwarded from the United States, was handed to him; it announced that the reason of the Empress Charlotte had received a shock. There are intensities of anguish, there are struggles of despair and rebellions against fate felt by a broken heart, which the pen is unable to describe.
The whole town, in which the empress was adored, was disconsolate. Maximilian gave the order to depart that night, and, on the morning of October 20, announced to the marshal that he was leaving Mexico:—
Alcazar de Chapultepec, October 20, 1866.
My dear Marshal,—I have been deeply touched by the expressions of consolation and sorrow that you have just sent me in your own name and that of your wife. I wish to express to you my deepest gratitude. The terrible blow caused by the late news, which has so grievously wounded my heart, and the bad state of my health caused by the intermittent fever which I have suffered from so long, now of course much increased, have necessitated (under the express order of my physician) a temporary sojourn in a softer climate.
In order to meet the express courier who is coming to me from Miramar, whose intelligence I am expecting with an anxiety easy to be understood, I intend to leave for Orizaba.
To your good judgment I confide, with the greatest confidence, the maintenance of tranquillity in the capital and in the most important places which are at the present time occupied by the troops under your command.
In these painful and difficult circumstances I rely more than ever on the loyalty and friendship that you have always shown me.
I shall travel according to the annexed itinerary, and I shall take with me the three squadrons of hussars of the Austrian volunteers, and all the disposable men of the gendarmerie.
This letter will be handed you by M. Herzfeld, a councillor of state, and my former fellow traveller at sea, whom I place at your disposal to give you every elucidation.
I repeat to you as well as to Madame Bazaine my warmAt this critical moment, when devotion might become dangerous, M. Larès presented himself at the palace, and declared, in the name of his colleagues, that all the ministers would retire if the emperor quitted Mexico. M. Herzfeld immediately informed the commander-in-chief of this.
Mexico, October 20, 1866.
On being informed of this significant incident, Marshal Bazaine wrote immediately to the president of the council, that the ministers must be wanting both in loyalty and generosity if they abandoned the emperor in an hour like this, after having sought for all his confidence; and that he (Marshal Bazaine) should feel compelled to adopt certain measures towards the ministers if they persevered in their resolution.
If it had not been for this energetic and necessary firmness, the whole government of the country would have suddenly fallen on the French commander at a time when the exact information received at our headquarters proved that all parties were on the point of rising en masse against the foreigners, and to massacre the small bodies of French which were still scattered over the territory, as if in another night of 'Sicilian Vespers.' In the evening, M. Herzfeld, by Maximilian's wish, came to Buena-Vista to ask advice from the marshal. In the meantime the now frightened ministers replied, that they were only too happy to continue to discharge their accustomed duties. The marshal, to whom Maximilian's envoy had confidentially broached the definite intention of his sovereign, who had now decided on abdication, replied that his majesty might leave and travel in perfect safety, and that he would take everything upon himself. The commander-in-chief thought, in fact, that the chances for the monarchy could now only get less and less, and he had not the heart to detain Maximilian, whom he left free to follow the suggestion of his own ideas. Delay, however, was especially necessary to allow the small French detachments, many of which were at this time six hundred leagues from Mexico, to get together and close in upon the main body. A sudden abdication would let loose the insurrection over the whole country: to obviate this, it was needful that Maximilian should feign a merely temporary absence, which would permit him to institute a regency which might lead the country on gently to another form of government. An abdication dated from Europe would be the only thing to prevent a great shock and to insure the safety of our army. This was the plan to which the marshal sought to incite Maximilian. At seven o'clock in the evening the prince was impatiently waiting in his palace the reply from head-quarters. At the moment it was handed to him, he was pacing up and down in a state of great agitation. After he had read it, he appeared somewhat relieved. The last words which he spoke before he left Chapultepec revealed all his thoughts:—'I can no longer doubt it; my wife is mad. These people are killing me by inches. I am thoroughly worn out. I am going away. Thank the marshal for 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 IMaximilian, as we see, urgently requested that his project of abdication should not transpire, even to his own council; in the second place, he begged the marshal to assemble the ministers to communicate his orders to them—orders all the more important as the law of October 3 was therein revoked. When he was just on the point of leaving the country, he did not wish that blood should be uselessly shed. The very next day, on the morning of October 22, the commander-in-chief (although the French government had charged him not to interfere in political matters), impelled by his devotion to the Emperor Maximilian, hastened to summon and assemble MM. Larès, Marin, minister of the interior, and Tavera, minister of war. He officially notified to them the will of their sovereign, and gave the order to put it into execution. It must be added that the ministers Larès and Marin professed themselves to be disinclined to accede to the generous ideas of Maximilian. The marshal replied to the emperor, informing him of the execution of his orders, but stating that hostilities could not be put a stop to at points where the rebels and parties who had not recognised the empire were attacking the French troops. In fact, the commander-in-chief had not the power of signing an armistice with the liberals. He had no right to modify, by his private authority, the military programme of the expeditionary corps, whose only duty was to save the empire. The general evacuation, however, still followed its course, and the number of places occupied by our troops lessened every day.
Maximilian appears to have changed his mind on this occasion too; for he never sent to the marshal either the important documents or the telegraphic despatch alluded to in his confidential letter of October 21. An incident, which should be related, marked the commencement of the young sovereign's journey. The halting-stages of the imperial cortège had been purposely arranged, so that General Castelnau should be unable to fall in with Maximilian. Nevertheless, the two travellers met for an instant in the village of Ayotla at breakfast-time; and although the envoy of Napoleon III. sought admittance to the young emperor, he had to leave without having obtained an audience.
The emperor's journey proceeded rapidly without his being annoyed by the guerillas, who, if they had not been held in check by the display of our troops, had intended to seize his person. An important movement of Juarist contingents had taken place on the coast of Oajaca, which Porfirio Diaz was menacing. During the whole journey, Maximilian only stayed at the houses of the Mexican clergy. On October 24, he slept at the priest's house at Acacingo. The road between this large village and La Canada is furrowed out by the rains of winter, and in the dry weather is smothered with dust. The country is rough, and covered with woods, in which redoubled watchfulness against attack was requisite. On one occasion the attendants of the sovereign were put in dread.
On the road ahead of them, a whirlwind of dust was stirred up under the tread of a party of red-clad horsemen. It turned out to be a squadron of the French contre-guerilla, who had come to flank his majesty's road. Maximilian made a few enquiries as to the positions which the contre-guerillas occupied in the Terres Chaudes, and then relapsed into the obstinate silence which he had maintained since his departure from Chapultepec. On alighting at La Canada, he demanded hospitality at the half-ruined priest's house in the little town. The night passed away sadly enough, spent in a cold room, and the next morning, about seven o'clock, the cortège moved in the direction of Orizaba. A thick fog spread over the narrow defiles of the Cumbres, and at a little distance obscured the valley below. During the whole journey Maximilian was distressed by fever; he left his carriage to descend on foot the zig-zag road leading down from the great mountain range which hangs over the Terres Chaudes. Wrapped in a long grey garment, and with a light-coloured, narrow-brimmed sombrero on his head, the emperor walked rapidly with his head bent down, followed by his faithful companion the German, Dr. Bash. Sometimes at a turn of the road he would stop to wait for his escort, and to cast a last look at a prospect which he thought he should never see again. About eleven o'clock the curé of Aculcingo, a miserable hamlet situated at the foot of the Cumbres, offered a slender repast to Maximilian. When they wished to start again, they found out that the eight white mules which drew the royal carriage were stolen; and they had to wait two long hours before they could find animals to replace them. The sun was already disappearing below the horizon ere they arrived at the lovely village of Ingenio, almost hidden in foliage. There, on the road, a numerous crowd of horsemen, pedestrians, and curés on horseback, followed by Indians and the inhabitants of Orizaba, were waiting to welcome the emperor with their acclamations, and to escort him to the city, which was still a mile and a quarter distant. When they came in sight of the towers of Orizaba, Colonel de Kodolich ordered the French cavalry to slacken their march, as his majesty desired to pass unattended through the streets in which he knew the inhabitants were waiting for him.
One of Maximilian's most decided tendencies, which distinctly manifested itself during his whole reign, was his desire to show himself to his people as seldom as possible when he was surrounded by the French, for whom he in general felt a deep antipathy. M. Dubois, a talented critic, who published in the Temps a conscientious review of the 'Souvenirs de Voyages' a work written by the archduke in his early youth, certifies to the constant expression of feelings unfavourable to France. He, indeed, concludes by avowing that his study of the prince's character has tended to lessen in his eyes this descendant of Charles the Fifth. 'It must be admitted,' adds this writer, 'that when Maximilian accepted the Mexican crown, others drew the sword for him; and he does not seem to have been very fond of his allies. His writings show, in fact, that he was full of prejudice against France and the French. The Emperor Napoleon is almost the sole exception to this dislike, which is so forcibly contrasted with the prince's infatuation for the Spaniards. In 1852, some months after "December 2," before the proclamation of the empire, the future emperor of Mexico recognised in the future emperor of the French "the powerful mind of the statesman who rules his age." There is no doubt that this impression existed; and that, at the decisive moment, it justified the prince's confidence in himself and his star, to which he was always quite disposed. But we must again repeat that, in general, the prince refuses us his sympathies; we are neither sufficiently catholic, nor sufficiently romantic for him. Perhaps, too, the prejudices which he manifests proceed from that deep and secret resentment against France, over which political necessities may sometimes cast a veil, which however, for both good and bad reasons, is bound to be hereditary in the house of Hapsburg. However this may be, the prince does not even like our language, and he congratulated the Emperor Francis Joseph on having, as much as possible, banished it from his court; he does not like our fashions, and he congratulated the Spanish on not having adopted them; but the features in us which he most of all detests, are our ideas and our character.'
Many of the questions which arose between Maximilian and Marshal Bazaine might have been discussed in a more conciliatory way by friendly conversation than by correspondence; but Maximilian often requested the marshal to come but seldom to the palace at Mexico, as the visits of the French commander-in-chief to the sovereign might (so the emperor fancied) be unfavourably interpreted by the Mexicans. When he was residing at the more secluded palace of Chapultepec, he expressed the contrary wish. This very same rule of conduct is met with in the last letters from Maximilian to his minister of war, dated from the town of Queretaro: he expresses in them all his impatience of the French yoke, and his joy at the cessation of the intervention, to which, nevertheless, he owed his throne. This peculiarity, adopted at the very outset of his reign, was certainly wanting in logic.