Bellows Falls times. [volume] (Bellows Falls, Vt.) 1856-1965, 1871-01-20
5fiscellanu.
From "our Sister Republic" Published by the
Columbian Book Company, Hartford. Conn,
Death of Macmillan.

III COAlpsthy WIN 1SnOi NuSH'8, 'o"S
out to see the spot where the three met
their death. On the northeastern slope
of the low, rocky hillside, facing the
city, rude barrier of adJbes had been
thrown up TO stop the bullets, and here
the carriage halted. Gen Escsbedo,
with a motion of the hand, directed Max
imilian to come down. The puppet EN-
peror, unaccustomed to such treatment
from those he regarded as the dust of the
earth, gave him look OF doubt which
finally changed to a scowl, descended hes
itatingly, and walked mechanically to-
ward the summit Of the hill. Miramon
arrived next, and seeing thar Maximil-
ian was going wrong, called him back.
They stood at first with Macmillan in
the centre, but the position was changed,
and when the troops drew up on the hill
below to fire upon them, Macmillan
stood on the west, Miramon next, and
Meiia on the east. Macmillan, from a
repugnance to touching the hands Of
common ffen, had contracted the habit
in Mexico of standing with his hands be-
hind him, and in this position he stood,
and aidsomething inaudible to the spec
tators, to Mejia and to Miramon. Then
he commenced bitter, rambling, and
and incoherent speech to Escobedo-not
the words at all which have since been
put in his mouth-about being willing to
die for the good of Mexico, but was stop
ped and told to face the muskets. Mejia
stood with his arms folded, Miramon
holding his written defence, and Maxi
milan with cross elevated in his right
hand, when the sharp crash of the volley
came, and all three rolled upon the
ground. Mejia and Miramon died in
stantly, but Macmillan repeatedly clap
ped his hand on his head as if in agony,
and expired with struggle, as the ech-
oes OF. the muskets died away among the
cannons Of the distant Sierra.
Died away did l say? No; not there,
nor them Those echoes rolled across
the broad Atlantic and shook every
throne in Europe. The royal plotter
against the liberties of men heard them
| in his palace by the Seine, and grew pale
as he listened. They rolled over the Py-
renees. and the throne of Isabella began
to crumble; over the Alps, and every
monarch from Italy to the farthest east
heard in them rumblings of the coming
earthquake-the prelude of the fall OF
empires. They will roll on, and on,
through the coming ages, and be answer
ed by the uprising millions of future gen.
erations until "Kingly Prerogatives y
and Divine Right" are the things Of
the past. The world had waited long
for these echos, and was better when il
heard them at last
The ground, which but few short
months ago was torn by cannon.shot
trampled by contending armies, and
drenched with the blood of Europe and
America, is now covered with corn-felds
and three plain, wooden crosses, painted
black, without inscription of any kind
and mounted on rude pile Of stones
alone mark the spot whereon was enact
ed the last scene of one of the most tire
mendous dramas of our time.
The laborers were engaged in gather
ing the corn, when our carriages drove
up, and they stopped q moment and look
ed on with silent interest as Mr.. Sewar(
stood beside the rude mound, while thC
uncle of Miramon told the story of th'
execution, and the two sisters of tht
most ambitious, bigoted and unscrupu
lous of Mexico's celebrities, clad in blacl
stood weeping silently behind them
Some there may be, who will think tina
l am hardly human, in my want of sym
pathy for the men who expiated thei
crimes against liberty and the rights o
men, at the Cerro de Las Campanas
but let them see the widows and orphans
the ruined towns, depopulated districts
poverty, misery and woe, which the,
brought upon this lovely land, as | hav
seen them, and then sympathize wit
dead royalty and its supporters if the
can. | have as much sympathy for hr
man misery as any man Lying, but it
the innocent victims of this crime agains
all that is holy--the starving poor an
helpless, that | sympathize; not wit
those who staked their all on the die,
trusting 10 gain the wages of crime, b
worshipped for their success, and feare
for their power, lost, and paid tn
penalty. | would have doubted the ju
tice of God, had Macmillan lived, an
the thousands Of brave men whom b
sent to death through his black flag d.
cree slept unavenged in their blood
graves. / have stood on the Cerro q
Las Campanas, and / know that God
just !