The San Francisco call., 1899-07-09

Castle. on the outskirts Of Trieste,
Maximilian having been appointed
Governor of the Lombard Venetian
kingdom. and there Carlotta passed the
few untroubled years of her life:
Then, at the very acme of all that
was beautiful and harmonious In her
life, the Goddess of Fortune appeared
with her tempting offer of a scepter
and a crown 1t was the story of the
Garden of Eden told again in different
phase, and once more 1t was Eve VINO
fell for it. was due to Carlotta's am
bition more than to the opportunities
of the Mexican delegation that Maxi
milan finally accepted the golden apple
of empire and thus attuned the instru-
ment which was destined to play his
own and his wife's requiem. However,
to the credit of Macmillan be 1t said,
the first offer was unqualif1edly de-
Clined, but when the delegation came
the second time. bearing what seemed
to be proofs that a majority of all the
people of Mexico Joined with them in
the request, he yielded, and the first act
of the tragedy began.
The reception of the embassy at the
castle of Miramar is a tableau which
closes the last act of the drama Of
Carlottas life before the curtain rose
upon the tragedy. 1t presents picture
which in retrospect seems almost pro-
phetic of strife, turmoil, sadness and
despair.
1t is not my intention to repeat here
history familiar to every good Ameri-
can. Carlotta was the sacrifice upon
the altar of nations, and she was ex-
actly "a years of age, Macmillan 80,
when their eyes beheld for the first
time the land where they hoped to re-
generate nation. Their entry into the
City of Mexico was triumphal one.
The splendors of their court were un-
precedented. Carlotta knew how to be
an Empress. I shall never forget her
in her royal robes of state She was
radiantly lovely, 1.-the and graceful of
figure, eminently beftted to adorn
crown.
The royal pair resided at the palace
of Chapultepec, which is four miles
from the city, on the outskirts of Tacu-
baya, at the extremity Of the Paseo de
la Reforma, one of the most magnif1-
cent boulevards in the world and
which. under the delicate touch of Car
lotta's genius and taste, became, and
remains to-day, the most beautiful.
The palace or as 1t was then called. the
castle of Chapultepec. was at that time
an uninviting mass of chaotic masonry.
surmounting gigantic agglomeration
of powders which some prehistoric
seismic disturbance had projected out
in the same condition in which the
Americans left it after the battle
which has made it's name historic.
The beautiful park which surrounds
1t was neglected, the resort of wander
ing animals and bandits and Carlotta's
first work was it's renovation. Her deft
hand left its imprint everywhere
among the giant cypress trees in the
park, in the new and winding road
ways, among the new statuary, in the
rejuvenation of Montezuma's Bath in
every vista that the eyes sought and
in every pathway upon which the feet
could tread. Her own private garden
was. and stilP remains, upon the roof
of the castle, and there, among her
favorite flowers, the young Empress
and her husband passed their hours of
leisure. There she tended the growing
plants with her own hands: there no
servant ever entered save under spe-
cific directions, and from it even the
Emperor was excluded bv his own
order. except when invited to partici-
pate in it's beauties by its fair autocrat
There are, to-day, growing trees and
shrubs in Carlottas garden which We're
planted by her own hands. and there is
in preservation bed of violets exactly
as she planned and cared for it,
Stranger still, in that land of changes,
the gardener who assisted Carlotta
presides over this spot still. Old and