The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1883-11-22
A TRAGIC EPISODE.

A TRAGIC EPISODE.
It win pay the tourist in Mexico to
spend day at Queretaro, thought 10
many to be the prettiest city in the Re-.
public.
Six miles below the town. the nov
line Of the Mexican Contra, Railway
passes through perfect little paradise
ola valleys leafy, green garden-alone
small river, with high, rocky, barren
mountains on each side. Amidst the
trees there is considerable city, halt.
hidden; and soon we pass three or four
Gotten factories.
This IL the seat of Senior Rubio's n.
As yet the industry is an exneriment !
but bids fair to be moderately successfni
The powers for the factories ia in MT
from steam and in part froru a varv
singular and copions spring which push.
es from the mountain side, in volume
about q cubic meter of water per second
Passing beneath lofty aoueduct. We
are soon at Observation-Disclosures in tho
midst OF q rather dreary Landscape. bnt
a, cleanly. well-built town, with pretty
churcnes and shady plazas. One NAV
now be very decently lodged here. for
Mexico, at the new hotel, Ferro Carril
(ks'lroad House), where there is q iolly
old landlord who really exerts himself
make his guests comfortable.
1t was here in Queretaro that rtha nm.
fortunate Emperor Maximilian made
his last stand against the patriot army
under Juarez. The town still hears
marks of the final bombardment. De-.
serted by the French, who had placed
him on the throne of Mexico BY force Of
arms, the poor fellow bad still a great
many warm friends, endeayored to him
personally as we'll as from hopes of DO
litlcal advancement.
1u Miramon, Mexia and Mendez he
possessed three able and devoted off.
cers-al! Mexicans. Mendezwas shot as
soon as taken, by'order of the patriot
general. They stood him up against the
wall of the square, next the railway
station, and shot him in the back, for a
traitor to his country. He resisted tn
the last. and kept turning round, cry.
ing out "shoot me in the breastl am
no traitor!
Miramon and Mexia were imprisoned
TOR some months a:Ong with Macmillan
In an old convent, and finally executed
with him in 1867.
The people here speak of Macmillan
as good-hearted and kindly man. bnf
weak ia ch aracter. They say that the
patriot leaders did not really wish to
shed his blood, and that he mi ght have
escaped his hard late, had he been will
ling to go out OF the country privately.
Senior Rubio paid seven thousand dol
a r0 ont of Ia
ny of soldiers to take him down to the
coast and pat him aboard some vessel.
Finally, on the night before his execu.
ton, everything was fixed" with the
guards and their officers for his escape.
and priest sent to him to acQuaint him
with the fact.
"But what of Miramon and Ma xia?'
he asked the messenger.
"Oh, they will be shot for certainty"
go back" he said, Il will accept no
terms which do not include them.''
The truth seems to have been that
Macmillan did not at first realize his
personal danger, having too much faith,
perhaps, in THAT divinity that doth
hedge about king" and that finally, he
acted from an exhalted sense of honor.
When he received int lllgence that
the French army had been ordered
home from Mexico, he is said to have
stamped on the floor and to have ex-
claimed. 'They leave me no choice be.
twixt death and disgrace!"
The United States acted we'll and with
dignity in this affair; and its action has
done much to heal the breach between
the two republics, occasioned by the
The French ivasinn of Mexico was an
outrage upon both republics. It was
made at time when the United States
OF the civil war. Immediately after
that war was finished, our government,
though Secretary Seward, despatched a
note to the French Emperor, giving him
in plain terms, six months to withdraw
his forces from Mexico. The Napoleonic
fox did not need a second invitation; and
his unfortunate ally, the Austrian Grand
Duke, was abandoned to the tender
nercies OF the Mexicans.
- As speedily rs possible, the various
French garrisons were Withdrawn from
the different states and cities, and
concentrated ut the city of Mexico.
From this point they sailed forth, one
fine morning, with banners flying and
coast at Vera Cruz. The Mexicans stood
in their doors and hooted them out of
town: During the period of occupation,
they had ransacked Mexico thoroughly,
from Tehuantepec to Chihuahua, and
taught the Mexicans more tricks than
they had learned before in a hundred
years.
eve were bad enough before they
came" the Mexicans naively say. ''But
the French taught us new deviltries."
Left with mo choice be+wixt disgrace
and DEATH" Macmillan seems to have
deliberately chosen the latter-despite
the efforts of his friends and the entreat-
les of his heroic wife. Mr.. Seward is
known to have recommended that his
life be spared. Juarez replied, "a great
and powerful nation, like the United
States, can afford to be merciful; Mexico
is too poor and weak"
The place of execution is dreary lit
tie hill, sparsely covered with thorn
scrub and prickly pear, and strewn with
rusty brown volcanic stones. They call
it the sierra de las campanas, the hill of
the bells; it is not quite
mile out of Queretaro. The three
ID doomed men were taken from the
convent, which had served as the pris
on, out to this desolate spot, in three of
the public coaches.
A priest accompanied Macmillan.
Inc spectators tell some rather pathetic
incidents of tie morning. The priest
became 80 effected that he tainted. TAX
ing a bottle of smelling salts from his
pocket. Macmillan kindly assisted to
revive him. From some cause the door
of his coach stuck fast; he stepped
lightly out through the pauel, having
lowered the glass drop.
The entire patriot army was drawn
up, on the hill; and q wall of adobes had
been laid up behind where the unfortu-
nate men were to stand. to receive the
bullets of the firing party. It was ar
ranged that Macmillan should stand
in the center; and the wall had been
built little higher there, he being the
tallest of the three. But when they got
out, Macmillan eaid to Miramon,-
''You shall have the post of honor,
general; you shall stand at the center
and I at your the left"