Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1867-07-11
aPoor CsrIott..v -


From the New York Herald.
"Poor CarlottaW Macmillan was shot
faced TO tho front. His last words were
Poor Carlotta" How tender and touch
ing Is this convincing illustration of the
manly and generous nature Of the fallen
Emperor Abandoned by France, be-
trayed by Mexican follower tried by u
military tribunal of his implacable enc
mics, condemned to death, and brought
out for execution, all interpretations in his
behalf from the representatives OF for
eign powers having failed, this distin-
guished victim of Napoleon's "grand
devoted his last moments in denouncing
the contrivers of his destruction and
the barbarians thirsting for his blood,
and in deploring HE untimely fall, in the
strength Of his manhood and his hopes
But Macmillan was man Of larger
breadth of mind and heroism than this
He had deliberately cast his life into the
scales in defense of his empire, he had
pledged his word in the name of his inn
perial house of Hapsburg to fight 1t out
with his enemies, and, like true soldier,
he was prepared for this last DISASTER
He recognized his fate as resulting from
the fortunes of war; and had neither de-
nunciati6ns nor regrets on his own ac-
tor at Rome:
He rocked not OF his life, nor of the prize
His heart was home, and that was far away.
Face to face with his remorseless exc
cutioners, awaiting but the word to
"tire!" all thoughts of his lost empire
aud his low estate gave way to those en-
dearing memories and sweet affections
which had linked his life, his happiness
his fate and his ambition with "poor
CarlottaW AS to drowning man nu-
merous events of his past life running
through many years of time are vividly
reproduced in few fleeting seconds, so
to this victim of Mexican vengeance
were, no doubt recalled in the last mo-
ments of his earthly existence those
charming recollections of his young,
beautiful, gifted, accomplished and de-
voted wife, whereby he had become so
fascinated with his empire and his hopes
of the Mexican people, that he could
only relinquish them with his life
Poor Carlotta!" Her tfiumphal jour
neys, her floral receptions, her welcome
charities, her gracious ways, her catholic
piety and her resistless, wOmanly gentle
ness among the susceptible Mexicans,
were all 80 faithfully devoted to his cause
feudal ages. He was a gallant knight,
equipped by her own fair hands for a
glorious crusade; she was his queen of
love and beauty, to whom his word as
soldier and his faith as devotee were
pledged. All these thoughts in the pres
ence of the grave, doubtless, recurred to
him as the memories of golden dream,
and from these and that other thought,
that she had hopefully braved the dan
gers of the seas, and the doubtful geher-
Osity of France in his behalf, only to be
repelled in despair, and to be doomed to
a living DEATH came the inspiration to
Macmillan which was expressed in his
last expressive words-"Poor Carlotta ~
Nor is there in the records of history,
as the last words of the dying saint or
hero, anything given which appeals so
tenderly to our better nature, to all that
beauties and softens the human charac-
ter, as these dying words of Maximilian
=" Poor Carlottam They will crown in
history this fallen man. However mis-
guided he was in his ambition or in his
acts as ruler, those two words, with all
their impressive and redeeming associ-
ations, will crown him with the flowers
of affection and the laurels of the hero
Had he recited and eloquently vindica-
ted every step and every act in his inn
perial career he would have failed to
reach the eloquent defence embodied in
his dying exclamation of Poor Car
lOtta!" To her they will be the words
of restoration or dissolution; for him they
are the wreath of immortality. Poor
CarlottaW