The Sun.
London, England, 1867-07-06 00:00:00

CORRESPONDENCE FROM PARIS.

(FROM. OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)
PARIS, Friday Evening.
The presumed execution of the Emperer Maxi-
milian almost exclusively occupies the attention of
the Paris journalists, all of whom express their
execration of the act and their sympathy for the
unfortunate Monarch. Although there are tele-
grams of all sorts announcing the fact, and are
stating that Miramon and Mejia were also shot, yet
some of the papers cling to hope from the terms
used by the Moniteur yesterday, which I trans-
lated. The Liberty, in remarking upon the subject,
uses the phrase of Talleyrand, and says the execu-
tion " is more than a crime : it is a fault."

The Patrie remarks that the city of Mexico, hay-
ing surrendered unconditionally on the 20th of June,
it may be supposed that the news of the execution
of Maximilian was invented and circulated by the
Juarist officers, who were besieging
Vera Cruz, in
order to hasten the reduction of that city and put a
stop to the last resistance of the Imperialists. It
may also be asked, How is it, if the execution took
place on the 19th, that the official news was not
transmitted by the rapid route often adopted, that
of Matamoras and Galveston.

The official Gazette of Vienna publishes several
despatches, couched in different terms, but all con-
veying the news of the execution as positive. In
consequence of these variations in the account of
the event the Austrian Government immediately
sent instructions to M. Wydenbruck, the Austrian
Minister Plenipotentiary at Washington, to ascer-
tain " precise" and accurate details, and to send a
report to Vienna immediately. Such a report has
not yet been received by the Austrian Government.
The French Government took a similar step the
moment the news arrived, but I believe that the
report of the French Minister at Washington has
not yet been received at the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs in Paris. In spite of the uncertainty, how-
ever, the Court of Vienna has ordered mourning for
six weeks for the Prince Maximilian, as if convinced
of his death.

One of the Paris papers contains a letter from a
correspondent at Queretaro, giving some particulars
of the defeat of Maximilian. lie had his head-
quarters at the large fortified convent of La Cruz.
When the city was delivered up to the Republican
troops on the morning of the 15th of May, the
Archduke sought refuge in the entrenchments of a
mountain which commands the northern part of
Queretaro, the cerro do la campagna, where he was
joined by Generals Mejia, Castillo, and Avellano,
the Prince de Salm-Salm, and several other of his
officers ; but it soon became evident that effectual
resistance was impossible. Four battalions of in-
fantry and all the cavalry of the enemy surrounded
the cerro. The white flag was then hoisted, and
the Archduke and all his staff surrendered to Gen.
Corona. The prisoners, a few hours afterwards,
were taken to the convent of La Cruz.

The unfortunate Emperor Maximilian who, it is
feared, has met with such a melancholy and igno-
minious death, had not attained his 35th year. He
was born at Vienna on the 6th of July, 1832. He
was the second son of the Archduke Francis Charles,
and the brother of Francis Joseph 1., the present
Emperor of Austria. By a somewhat fatal coin-
cidence his death occurred nearly at the time when
the Emperor of Austria was crowned as King of
Hungary. At the time of Maximilian's accession
to the throne of Mexico he was at the head of the
Austrian navy, and had been a sailor in his youth.
He was also termed " proprietor" of the Austrian
Lancers, No. 8, and colonel of the Neumark Regi-
ment of Prussian Dragoons, No. 8. In 1861 he was
President of the Austrian House of Lords. Maxi-
milian was freely proclaimed Emperor of Mexico
by the Assembly of Notables of that empire, and a
deputation from them went to Miramar to offer him
the crown, which lie unfortunately accepted. He
embarked for his distant States, the States of his
doom, on board the Austrian frigate Novarre.
Maximilian was marrie I to his equally ill-fated
wife, the Empress of Mexico, on the 27th of July,
1857. The then Archduchess Marie Charlotte
Aurelio Auguste Victoire Clementine Leopoldine
was then seventeen, having been born at Brussels
on the 7th of June, 1810. She is the daughter of
the late King Leopold the First of Belgium, and
sister of the present King of the Belgians, and
grand-daughter of Louis Philippe of France.
In a work " Mexico as it is," by the Abbe
Domenech, who was for a long time director of the
press of the Cabinet of Maximilian, some interest-
ingshe
is particulars
described are
as layinpdr Charlotte.ess
commanding,
given of
beautiful,theE
with a very intelligent and expressive counte •
nce.
Her charity was boundless. She at one ti
me spent
10,000 f. a week in succouring the distressed. Her
chief amusement was to study the laws.
When the Empress first went to Mexico she
exhibited the utmost desire to conform to the