The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-12-12
ILL-FATED MAMMALIAN
GEN. GUNNER's "REMINISCENCES OF
STIRRING TIMES IN MEXICO.
His Pilgrimage to Europe with the
Unfortunate CarIotta When Her
Husbands Star Began to Set.

Dallas CTex) Letter in the st. Louis Post
Dispatch.
AS he sits in the little nook between two
buildings which serves him as a news
stand, General Rudolph Gunner of this
city, recalls the days when he was the
friend and companion of an Emperor, the
esquire of an Empress and a court official
of an empire. With mingled feelings of re-
sret ard pathos he recounts the troubous
times when he bore his lovely burden
through the wids of southern Mexico
across the border into Yucatan, and after
ward appeared with her in the courts of
Europe to plead the cause of her ill-starred
husband. whose royal birth could not save
him from an ignominious death.
General Gunner was a playmate of Maxi
milan, then Archduke of Austria and later
Emperor Of Mexico. They entered the Aus
trial Naval Academy at Venice together in
1S4S. and started into active service three
years later. when General Gunner was made
a full cadet on board the frigate Venus.
Before they left Europe he commanded
Maximilian's private yacht the Phantasie,
on which he and Carlotta spent their sum-
mers travelling on the Mediterranean sea,
and the general was his companion during
accepted the crown offered him by the no
tables of Mexico, in 1863, General Gunner
accompanied him and was appointed COM
mander Of the palace and Director del Gran
Chambelanto. He has faced death on the
battlefeids of Austria, Italy, the Crimea,
Africa and Mexico. His whole career has
been full of adventures and danger.
Now all is changed. The old general is
r4,II -~I,ks -
Macmillan has been dead for thirty years
Carlotta, once the Empress of a great coun-
try, shorn of her marvellous beauty and
Invested of reason, is confined in a mad
house on the outskirts OF Brussels The
aged general, once her trusted friend and
knight, is selling newspapers for q living
in little hole in the wall in Dallas.
The history of General Gunner is as ro-
mantle as that of Maximilian and Carlotta
was tragic. Yet it is a subject he rarely
discusses. Sometimes when he finds an
agreeable companion, he becomes reminis-
cent, and when in this mood he reveals
something of the stirring scenes through
which he has passed, and dwells especially
on the sad fate of his two royal COM
pan1Ons.
MAXIMILIAN'S FATE.
When Macmillan accepted the offer of
the crown of Mexico it was at the advice
of Napoleon III of France, who already had
an army stationed there and who was eager
that an empire should be established" said
General Gunner. 'It is said that he guar
anteed Macmillan that the French troops
should be maintained in the country until
1863 but this promise, if it was made, was
abrogated by the action of the government
of the United tSates, which, as soon as the
civil war was over, took steps to enforce
the Monroe doctrine. These are matters of
history. Everybody knows in general
way of the countless troubles that beset
n a
dynasty in Mexico, and of the manner in
which he was finally court-martialed and
executed.
although the Emperor did not reach
Mexico until the spring of 1864, the spirit
of opposition was so great that in the
autumn of 1865 he decided, as a precaution-
airy measure, to send the Empress Carlotta
out of the country. Macmillan and had
been friends from boyhOod We had trav-
eled together and fought together, and at
his request / had accompanied him to Mex
leo, when he went there to become En-
peror He had faith in my friendship, and
had appointed me an officer Of his court.
When he decided to seclude the Empress
he entrusted her implicitly into my care
and ordered me to take her to Yucatan.
cred advisable, owing to the national pre-
JUDGE existing in this country against
Macmillan and the schemes of Napoleon
III. Yucatan was the nearest other coun-
try of any prominence. and the Emperor
desired to send her there, believing that
she would be safe. The journey from
Chapultpec, then the national capital re-
quired only a short time. We Travelled in
cognito, and thus escaped annoyance Still
it is not probable that even the revolution
lists would have made any hostile demon
STATIONS, as much as they hated Maxi
milan and his royal ideas, for the Empress
had endeared herself to the hearts OF all
classes by her gentleness and piety ana
philanthropic works. During her residence
in Mexico she spent 5000 week on an
average on the poor, and she mingled with
them with freedom that was surprising
,-;I hn.
I'VE reached Yucatan in safety and re-
NAMED there during that winter. we were
in constant communication with the En-
peror and 7 still have in my possession quite
number of letters l received from MN
during that time. Empress Carlotta, was
in a state of suppressed excitement an tne
time as a result of the unsettled condl-
tion of the new empire and her tears Ior
her husbands safety and It required an lIle
ingenuity possessed to keep her IN state
u ..Natfers were fast approaching crisis,
and in the spring of 1856 Ma>im1lian saw
that he would have to avail himself OF the
aid So confidently promised him in Paris
three wears before in order to avert SUI
IRENE disaster. He finally decided TO send
pone and anneai to them to redeem their
hedges Besides this, Carlottas rather,
King Leopold of Belgium, had died only
short time before that and she was anxious Gus
for the good it would do her husband
cause to reach her native land TO clalnI nsI
half of the Belgian millions. But her PROM
er, King Leopold II, Wno lto 9u i Ill, &c
the throne, refused to yield to her WISHES
Claimed and kept the entire estate This of
itself was q blow sufficient to aftect a
stronger constitution than that OF the den-
cate Carlotta, but the worst ala no1 N GoIne
until the time of her interview with Napo-
leon. roNr
again Macmillan intrusted the Empress
"a nv care, and in May, 1866, after return
ing from Yucatan, we set sail from Vera
Cruz for Europe. A few weeks later she
was at the door of the Castle of Napoleon
III. begging for an audience. AT first ne
refused to see her, affecting illness. In the
meantime Prussia had declared war on