“The Emperor Is Saved”

On June 17th I awoke in very good spirits. I had slept excellently on my hard couch, and across my dreams I heard continually the joyful news, “The Emperor is saved.”

Continuing Mexico Rejects Maximilian.
Today we begin the second part of the series with our selection from My Diary in Mexico by Felix Salm-Salm published in 1868. The selection is presented in 2 easy 5 minute installments. For works benefiting from the latest research see the “More information” section at the bottom of these pages.

Felix Salm-Salm (1828-1870) was a soldier in Maximilian’s army.

Previously in Mexico Rejects Maximilian.

Time: 1867
Place: Mexico

In the morning of June 16th, at eleven o’clock, Colonel Miguel Palacios came, accompanied by General Refugio Gonzales, with a detachment of soldiers, and the latter read the death warrant to the Emperor and the two generals. The Emperor heard it with a calm smile, and, looking at his watch, he said to Doctor Basch: “Three o’clock is the hour; we still have more than three hours, and can easily finish all.”

The fatal hour came, and the three condemned waited in the passage for the officer charged with their execution. They waited a whole hour, and the Emperor conversed as usual with his confessor and two of his counsellors. At last came, at four o’clock, Colonel Palacios with a telegram from San Luis Potosi, ordering the postponement of the execution until June 19th. This news produced a most disagreeable impression upon the Emperor, for he had done with life, and looked on this delay rather as a cruelty, knowing the Mexicans too well to believe in grace. The troops who had been placed near the Alameda, to be marched thence to the Cerro de la Campafia, where the execution was to take place, were discontented also, fearing that they might be deprived of their victim. They had arrived with merry music, but returned home silent and sullen.

When the Colonel left me, I abandoned myself to unrestrained joy. I ordered a bottle of wine, to drink good luck to the Emperor, and smoking my cigar and humming a tune I paced my chapel, and even the horrid faces of the martyrs on the wall seemed to smile. The sentinel stared at me with his mouth wide open, probably thinking me mad. To give him a better idea of my wits, I presented him with four reals, but as he could not see any more reason for my present than for my good humor, I am afraid I only confirmed his bad opinion of the state of my brain.

On June 17th I awoke in very good spirits. I had slept excellently on my hard couch, and across my dreams I heard continually the joyful news, “The Emperor is saved.”

Colonel Villanueva had promised to come at one o’clock; but I waited in vain for him all day, and my doubts returned. What has happened? Should the bloody Indian, Juarez, or his Mephistopheles, Lerdo, the minister with the false, sarcastic mouth, dare still to commit the refined cruelty of murdering my Emperor, after making him pass through all the bitterness of death? Maybe he offended their low souls by the nobleness of his demeanor. It would be an infamous cruelty; but what might not be expected from Mexicans?

On the morning of June 18th Lieutenant-Colonel Pitner came for a moment into the little yard and whispered that things went very badly for the Emperor; and soon afterward Colonel Villanueva came. He was greatly excited and told me that he had been cruelly disappointed; Maximilian was lost, without any hope; the execution would take place at eight o’clock next morn ing. “I am ashamed,” he said, “that so many bad elements are among us. I hoped still that the Moderate party would con quer, and the life of the Emperor be saved. I feel grieved that my poor country, hated and despised by all the world, must be stained again in this manner.”

The Emperor had taken leave of his officers on the 17th, in Queretaro, in the following letter:

QUERETARO,
“PRISON DE Los CAPUCINOS, June 17, 1867.
“To the Generals and Field Officers, prisoners in this city:
“At this solemn moment I address to you the present lines, in order both to acknowledge the loyalty with which you have served me and to give you a token of the true regard which I feel for you.
Your affectionate
“MAXIMILIAN.”

As I was separated from the rest of the prisoners, I saw this letter only later, and therefore my name, as that of some other generals, is wanting under the reply.

The Emperor ordered Doctor Basch to make a list of persons to whom he desired to leave some little keepsake. To me he bequeathed his beloved perspective glass, which he held almost constantly in his hand during the entire siege of Queretaro, and to the Princess the fan which he had used in prison during his last days. The Emperor went to bed at half past eight, and was already asleep when he was disturbed by a visit from Escobedo, at II p.m.

Captain Enking, who accompanied the General at this improper visit, noticed that the Emperor looked with an expression of intense expectation on the entrance of the General, as if expecting to hear news of his pardon from him. Had the Captain observed correctly, the look of the Emperor would have been very explicable and natural. He could not, indeed, expect from Escobedo a visit of friendly sympathy, or believe that he only came to enjoy the sight of his foe conquered solely by vile treason. A visit from the Commander-in-Chief under these circumstances was solely justifiable if, disturbing the last sleep of his prisoner, he came to announce life to him.

From the Emperor, Escobedo went to see Mejia, who saved him once when he was condemned to be shot. Mejia recommended his children to him, and Escobedo promised to take care of them. He sent later an aide-de-camp to the General’s widow, and offered her his assistance for her children; but the noble woman spurned with scorn the assistance of the murderer of her husband, and said that she was young and strong, and could work for her children.

In the afternoon of the 18th the Emperor telegraphed to Juarez: “I would desire that M. Miguel Miramon and Thomas Mejia, who suffered all the tortures and bitterness of death the day before last, might be spared, and that I, as I have already said when taken prisoner, may be the only victim.”

This request was refused, and the same fate attended the re quest of the same date of Baron Magnus, addressed to the minister Lerdo de Tejada, which thus concluded:

“I implore you, in the name of humanity and of Heaven, not to make any further attempt against his life, and repeat how certain I am that my sovereign His Majesty the King of Prussia, and all the monarchs of Europe, who are related to the imprisoned Prince, his brother the Emperor of Austria, his cousin the Queen of Great Britain, his brother-in-law the King of Belgium, and his cousin the Queen of Spain, as also the Kings of Italy and Sweden, will readily agree to give all possible guarantee that none of the prisoners shall ever return to Mexican territory.”

The Emperor addressed letters of thanks to his four advisers, and wrote the following letter to Juarez, which is dated June 19th, as it was to be delivered on that day:

QUERETARO, June 19, 1867.
“M. BENITO JUAREZ: On the point of suffering death because I desired to try whether new institutions would enable me to put an end to the bloody war which for so many years has been causing ruin to this unhappy country, I will yield up my life with satisfaction if this sacrifice can contribute to the welfare of my adopted country. Being fully convinced that nothing durable can be produced on a soil soaked in blood and moved by violent agitations, I implore you in the most solemn manner, and with that sincerity which is peculiar to moments like those in which I find myself, that my blood may be the last that may be spilled, and that the same perseverance, which I appreciated when in the midst of prosperity, and with which you defended the cause that conquers now, might be applied to the most noble end—to reconcile all hearts, and to rebuild on a durable, firm foundation the peace and order of this unhappy country.
MAXIMILIAN.”

Charles A. Fyffe begins here.

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