The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-06-20

a Faithful Wife and Brave Woman Sacrificed
+. to Blind Ambition.


Surely the most mournful of all the sad stories
of modern history is that of Carlotta. the
daughter of that Leopold of Belgium whom the
great NAPOLEON described as 1.-THE finest man he
had ever seenn This same Leopold went to
!; Paris IN 1916 after the battle of Waterloo In
1916 he was welded to Carlotta only daughter
of George ~ of England, and in November 1917.
both his wife and child, the latter new born,
'wsre buried. In August, 1892 after the revo
luton which had separated Holland from
Belgium and given Leopold crown, ne
married Louise Maria, second daughter
/ of Louis Philippe, the Citizen
King of the French. The fruit of this union
were Leopold now king of the Belgians; fnil
lippe, Count of Flanders, and the unfortunate
Carlotta. The mother of Carlotta died when the
latter was but ten wears old, and the child had an
sarly tuition in the hollow quality of European
court life, without any safeguard but sucR as
could be supplied by hired governesses. writer
of the time Immediately succeeding the great
tragedy of her life unconsciously gives an idea
of her early misery, when he says ''her associa-
ton with her superiors in age was so constant
that she seems never to have enjoyed the ordin
AIRY ight-heartedness and playfulness of child
hood" Poor girl! this was but preparation for
the sorrows to come-sorrows that have had no
parallel since the world has agreed to discard the
AK and gjbbet in dealing with women.
The poor young Princess grew in favor and in
praise till ir 1857 when but seventeen years old,
she was married to Macmillan, younger brother
of Francis Joseph, Emperor OF Austria Ine
marriage was one of Snose customary among tue
used to attempt to make here territorial mar
rages in Virginia The poor girl, no DOUBT
loved her young husband. Her subsequent con-
duct showed how deep, how absorbing, now TN
fortunate that love was in its results.
Macmillan was sailor by profession, pnilo-
sophie inquirer by choice. He commanded sew
eral scientific expeditions and has written AM
published some volumes that are still
treated with respect by the scientific
world 1t was this peculiarly liberal
bent Of mind that excited Cavour's hostility to
Macmillan. The great Italian saw in the Aus
trian prince deadly foe to Italian political free
dom. Austria, at that time, had complete con-
troll of Venetia and Lombardy, and, by marriage
connections and religious bonds, really governed
Naples and Rome. With liberal prince like
Macmillan to represent Austrian ideas, the task
OF the Italian li5erator would have been inn
mensely increased. He did not want a Maxi
milan around his quarters. and said, "Maximil-
ian is the only adversary fear, because he rep
resents the only principle that can ever enchain
our Italian cause"
All the time, from 1857 to 1863. Macmillan
and Carlotta dwelt, as in Eden, at the palace of
Miramar, on the east coast of the Adriatic. 1t
seems that their life there perfect idyl,
leye and literature supplying its rhythmic tones
Art in all shapes, music, sculpture, painting,
words-all combined to make their brief six
years of happiness one of those delightful cpl
s0des, the mere reading of which suggests hap
piness and love to all mankind. But the tempter
came Macmillan was ambitious of worldly
renown: he knew the sweets of acquisition as
scholar; he was brave, a sailor and a Hapsburg.
An empire was offered him. The tinsel Emperor
of great nation, the fellow who inherited name
without particle of blood right to the inheri-
lance; the smaller Napoleon, before whom
the SINCE Tigres kneeled for few years. gave
vent to one of his grandiloquent DEGREES. He
would create Latin empire in the West to
redress the balance of the East" Plagiarist,
even in this orotund phrase, he blinded mems
eyes to his folly. and Macmillan was seduced
into becoming his instrument.
Poor Carlotta, the faithful wife and brave
woman, followed her Austrian husband to Mex
leo, where the new empire was to be founded
and maintained. The scheme was skllfully con-
trived. Napoleon the Little had money and
prestige enough pending the civil war in the
United States, to buy UP. party in Mexico
They were called party, but were really lot
of stock jobbers and spectators, who, with
hearts absolutely cold as to humanity patri-
otism. sought to make profit out of Mexican
bondsto say nothing Of Mexican blood They
went to Miramar, and, in the name of Mexico,
offered throne and fealty to the hapless Prince.
Through one of those miracles of blindness
which sometimes affect the best educated men.
Macmillan swallowed the bait. Napoleon III
not only needed new Latin empire in the West
ern world, but the prestige which political
alliance with The Hapsburgs would give him.
Macmillan became his tool, and the faithful
pair-to the phraseology of the European
court journals-had not been many weeks in
Mexico before the wife. with true wifely in
stinct, saw and understood the false position in
which she and Macmillan were placed. Carlotta,
from babyhood, had been noted for peculiar
sympathetic quality which caused her infinite
grief. even when the smallest and most inconsid
cradle animal suffered in her sight When she
saw the doom clouds gathering over her husband,
we may imagine, though we cannot describe, her
sorrow.
She fed from Mexico, having besought her
husband in vain to fly from the death trap. He,
haughtiy declaring that a Hapsburg had better
die than fly, remained. She went to France, to
Paris; saw the spurious Bonaparte and begged
flor aid; begged for the only aid that could save
her husbands life-for military aid. Her an
swer was cold declaration that France could
not sustain the Mexican empire, which the
French Emperor had created; that war with
the United States would be certain to ensue,
and that instead of sustaining the Emperor of
Mexico the French army under Bazaine would
have to be Withdrawn.
This almost broke the poor woman's heart
but with womans faith in the impossible,
she sought for comfort in Rome. Protestant
herself, she deemed that the Papacy
would come 10 the rescue of her Catholic
husband-compel the Catholic Mexicans to be-
come Maximilian's obedient subjects She
knew nothing of politics, nothing of the stern
conditions of political contest All that she
knew and all that she considered was the dan
ger of her husband, who was all the world to
her. When her prayer was denied at The Vat
ician, she stopped not to reason out the right or
wrong of her unhappiness; she could not Rea-
son swooned, and from that time to within a
fsw days past, for nineteen long years she has
been an amiable maniac-dead to the world and
all but woe. That last has been her possession
all the time--woe!
It is not quite well known whether poor Car
Iotta ever thoroughly comprehended the fact of
her husbands murder by the Mexcans 1t is
probable that the tragedy of Queretaro which
occurred in June, 1867, has never been fully
communicated to her. 1t is probable that she
since her mental wreck in Rome In 1866 Should
that oe the case-should it happen that her
restoration to reason is but the awakening from
a dream-how awful must be that awakening!
Think of it! night of nineteen years, dreams
Of terror, and the realityi Poor Macmillan
sleeps in his bloody grave. but his unhappy con-