The San Francisco call., 1899-07-09

bent, swarthy and forbidding OF aspect,
he speaks of Carlotta as reverently as
he does Of the Blessed Virgin. He keeps
alive one human heart that has not for
gotten her, and her bed of violets looks
the same now as IT did when she last
knelt beside 1t, unconscious Of the fact
that the grand structure created by her
ambition was to fall In ruins and rob
her of everything she possessed save
life.
Carlotta constituted herself president
of the Woman's Charitable Society, and
never during her stay in Mexico did
she neglect the affairs of state, regard
ing which she was at all times her hus-
bands chief adviser. There is no doubt
that in the more important measures
adopted by Macmillan she was the
brains and the potential element.
Then the United States interfered.
Napoleon was ordered to withdraw his
troops. Here again Carlotta was doTn1-
nant. She would go herself to France
and intercede with the Emperor.
What can be more pathetic than the
spectacle of this girl Empress, then but
26 years old, pleading with the Em-
peror of France and the Pope Of Rome
for the means and soldiers to save from
ruin the empire OF her husband, at q
time when Macmillan had been alreodv
many weeks dead, murdered by the
people he had vainly tried to rule? The
wife, pleading for the husbands pres
eryation weeks after that husband was
moldering in his untimely grave! Tha
Empress struggling against hope for
the empire which had ceased to exist,
for an Emperor who was slainl
Carlotta's ambition and pride were
crushed, her heart broken, and then
God in His infinite mercy, drew the
veil of forgetfulneSS over the mind or
this earnest woman, in order that she
might b. spared the agony that must
InrS wit ha
hen husbands awful death Young
only twenty y-six-beautiful ambitious,
loving, on the very threshold Of youth
and hope, she was seized and torn from
the world by the relentless hand OF un-
reason, and cast into the midnight OF
utter blank.
For thirty-three years she has been
banished to an oblivion that Is worse
than death. In Belgium her name is
an unspoken one, but in Palace Lack
en- on the outskirts of Brussels, she
has passed a third of a century waiting
for her souls release from its useless
prison. She believes that she is still
Empress of Mexico, awaiting the re-
turn of Macmillan, who has gone at
the head of his army to quell revolt
against his authority.
Since Carlotta entered her retreat
she has been seen by no one outside her
household, which is conducted in an
imperial manner from the fortune left
her by Leopold 1. Every month of the
year Carlotta holds mimic court. The
members of her household, which num-
bers more than three hundred persons,
are presented to her in the same cere-
monious manner in which Queen Vic
toria holds her drawing room.
She presents them with gifts. which
are formally received-the pictures
taken from the valls of the palace are
presented, and then the following day
are restored to their places-merely to
indulge her demented fancy. Every
courtier and lady Of honor plays the
part assigned with mimic dignity.
The grounds surrounding the palace
are not less in i~rea than Manhattan
Island itself, and there CarlOtta drives
about daily in her coach of state, with
her cavaliers in attendance. There,
too, she sometimes wanders among
the flowers, planning improvements,
as she did about the grounds Of Cha
pultepec, in Mexico.
Poor Carlottai
~