The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1885-08-20
Poor Cariotta.

| surrey the most mOurl1ul CT all the
sad stories of modern history is that
| of Carlotta, the daughter of that Leo
| pold of Belgium whom the great Ma
| poleon describes as 1.-The finest man he
| had ever seem"
The young Princess. when but IL
| years old, was married to Macmillan,
younger brother Of Francis Joseph,
Emperor of Austria This was in 1857.
From 1857 to 1868 Maximiliau and
Carlotta dwelt, as in Eden, at the pal
ace OF Miramar, on the east coast of
the Adriatic. 1t seems that their life
was a perfect idyl. love and literature
supplying its rhythmic tones. Art in
IN all shapes, music, sculpture, paint
ing, words-all combined to make
their brief six years of happiness one
OF those delightful episodes the mere
reading of which suggests love and
happiness to all mankind. But the
tempter came. Maximilian was am
bilious of worldly renown; he knew
the sweets of acquisition as scholar;
he was brave, sailor, and Hapsburg.
An empire was offered him. The tin
sci Emperor of great nation, the fel-
low who inherited a name without a
particle of blood-rIght to the inherit
ance; the smaller Napoleon, before
whom the Singe-Tigres kneeled for a
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"
Poor Carlotta, the faithful wife and
brave woman. followed her Austrian
husband to Mexico, where the new en-
pire was to be founded and maintained.
The scheme was skillfully contrived.
Napoleon the Little had money and
prestige enough pending the Civil
War in the United States to buy up a
party in Mexico. They were called a
party, but were really lot of stock
Jobbers and spectators who, with
hearts absolutely cold as to humanity
or patriotism, sought to make a profit
out OF Mexican bOndS-to say nothing
of Mexican blood. They went to Mira
mar and, in the name of Mexico, of
fered throne and fealty to the hapless
Prince
Through one of those miracles of
blindness which sometimes affect the
best educated men, Maximilian swal-
lowed the bait. Napoleon III. not
only needed a new Latin empire in the
Western world, but the prestige which
political alliance with the Hapsburgs
would give him. Maximilan became
his tool, and the faithful Carlotta fol-
lowed her lord But the imperial
pair-to use the phraseology of the
European court iournals-had not been
many weeks in Mexico before the wife,
with true wifely instinct, saw and un-
derstood the false position in which
she and MaXimillan were placed. Car
lotta fled from Mexico, having besought
her husband in vain to fly from the
death-trap. He, haughtily declaring
that Hapsberg had better die than
fly, remained. She went to France, to
Paris; saw the spurious Bonaparte and
begged for aid; begged for the only aid
that could save her husbands life-for
..!as iamoa "nsnn % 1ouiu Iuu nut
sustain the Mexican Empire, which the
French Emperor had created; that a
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 Door woman's
heart; but, with woman's faith in the
impossible, she sought for comfort in
Rome. A Protestant herself she
deemed that the Papacy would come
to the rescue of her Catholic husband
compel the Catholic Mexicans to be-
come Maximilian's obedient subjects.
She knew nothing of politics. Ali that
she knew and all that she considered
was the danger of her husband, who
was all the world to her. When her
prayer was denied at the Vatican she |
stopped not to reason out the right or |
wrong OF her unhappiness; she could |
not. Reason swooned, and from that
time to within few days past, for
long years, she has been an
amlable maniac, dead to the world and |
all but woe.