Greene County herald. (Leakesville, Miss.) 1898-current, 1899-07-13
A TRUE MEXICAN PATRIOT,
Tempted to Release MACMILLAN But H'
Spurned the Bride.


Spurned the Bride.
After the collapse of the Mexican
empire that Louis Napoleon tried to
establish, the Emperor" the Arch
duke Macmillan, Francis Joseph's
unfortunate brother, was held as a
prisoner at Queretaro, while the
French and Austrian Governments
were using all possible influence at
Washington and with the Mexican
Government to save him from execu.
ton. Among the officers who were
confined with him were Mejia and
Miramon, who were afterward his
companions in death, and Colonel
Salm Salm, called Prince Salm Salm,
since he was the son of pretty Ger
man ruler He was a young man who
had served with some distinction in
the Union army in the American Civil
War, and at its close had come to
Mexico, looking for new fields for
military exploits. The wife OF Colonel
Salm Salm, an American woman-who
happens just now to be upon o visit to
this country-had accompanied him to
Mexico, and was living in Queretaro,
and was allowed to visit her husband
and the other prisoners at will. This
gave to them the means OF communi-
eating with other friends outside the
prison, and, using her as an agent,
they set on foot plot to escape.
There were many friends OF the En-
pire in the city, while the Mexican
soldiers and officers were in pitiable
condition of poverty, which made ii
possible to use the considerable money
that Macmillan still had at his COM
mand to bride the aid Of some of them
who were not statesmen enough to
see what perils would come to the re-
public if the defeated pretender should
escape. So the plot hourished, and q
strong party of mounted men was pre-
pared to ride with the fugitives on n
certain night and guard them to one
of the seaports. where vessel was
ready to carry them to Europe.
The only obstacle to carry out the
plan was now the officer who had the
immediate charge of the royal prisoner,
Colonel Miguel Palacios. The at.
tempt TO win him over was intrusted
to the Princess Salm Salm. The
clever woman invited him to call at
her hotel, and manifested the deepest
concern for his family, who, she told
him, she knew to be deprived of even
the necessities of life by his long and
unpaid services for his country She
talked to him of his destitute, almost
starving children, and of his sick wife
with her new born babe, and besought
him to accept for them considerable
sum of money that she offered him,
saying that it was in his power to re-
pay her a thousandfold by a simple
act of kindness.
Almost overcome by this seeming
kindness from one who belonged to
the enemy, Colonel Palacios asked her
what the favor she mentioned was;
and she, believing that he was ready
to accept, told him that it was simply
to go to sleep the following night in
stead of commanding the guard as it
was his custom to do. She then
fastened to show him a draft, signed
by MuAiuilinu himself, and drawn in
favor of Colonel Palacios upon the
imperial house of Hapsburg for $780,
900. This she assured him the EN-
peror Francis Joseph would gladly
pay, making the poor soldier rich for
life; while she showed him as we'll
that the plot was SO laid that no sus-
picion could attach to him. She
intimated, too, that lie would be really
serving his country in helping Maxi
milan to escape, as the Republican
Government did not know what to do
with him, fearing to let him go and
fearing still more to execute him.
1t does not often fall to the lot of q
man to be tempted under more trying
circumstances; but the simple story,
as told in the military record of the
Mexican army, is that Colonel Palacios
promptly reported the whole plot to
the general commanding, and that
the intriguing Princess was at once
bsnished from the city. Her husband
was released, and died at the head of
Prussian regiment at Gravelotte;
but the unfortunate Archduke and his
two generals were shot. just outside
| Queretaro, on the sun-burned slope
of the "Hill of the Bells. New
| Voice