The Jennings daily record. [volume] (Jennings, La.) 1900-1903, 1902-03-25


~ u lomatic mission from Mex
N ico The presence in the
Imperial City of this par
ticular embassy, consisting of two men
with the high-sounding names OF Don
Jose de Teresa Miranda "a near rela-
tive of President Diaz}, and Manuel de
Lizardi, means that there is now
complete renewal of official reiatlons
between Austria-Hungary and Mexico
which were broken of thlrty-nVe
years ago. The recent reception OF
the Mexican ambassador was, how
ever, preceded by the conservation OF
an expiatory chapel at Quertaro,
erected to the memory of Maziimlllan'
and to which the emperor Francis Jo-
seph sent magnificent altar piece. as
a memorial of his martyred brother.
This new state of things naturally
brings once more before the public eye
the noted Mexican city, where a gen.
Grafton ago was played the last act OF
a tragedy.
There is still living in Vienna an
old, energetic, little man who was an
eyewitness to the terrible event, the
Hamburger Maximillian'S cruel death.
This man, Prof. Won Busch, was the
only European the emperor took with
him in his suite when he left the
Mexican capital to go to Quertaro.
Prof. Won Busch was therefore able
to give to the world graphic and
authentic account of the last days
of this short-lived and noble mon
arch.
According to PROF. Won Busch's
statements, Macmillan from the very
beginning played a thankless role,
surrounded as he was by his treacher-
Gus assistant emperor and his not
too unselfish ministers. Marshal Ba-
zaine appears, though, to have been
the greatest enemy of all, and
Prof. Won Busch accuses him, in his
book Sanctioned by Napoleon 1l1O,
of grossly violating the contract by
the withdrawal at a most critical
time Of the French troops, which,
according to the convention of Mira
mer had been placed at the service
of the emperor of Mexico.
This Mexican expedition, how
ever, seems not only in it's ending but
throughout the whole affair much
more like an adventure than anything
else. Through it a liberal prince be-
came the tool of the Tuilleries, by
allowing himself to be forced upon
a foreign people who had no wish
for a foreign monarch. Macmillan
found on his accession an empty state
treasury, and in this beggared condl-
ton his ministers allowed him to
undertake the expedition to Quertaro.
Consequently, during its siege, he suf-
fered many hardships and experienced
untold anXieties. He waited for
money and troops, but neither was
sent to him from the city of Mexico.
And to add to all his other troubles,
a perfdious follower wound himself
successfully into the emperor's conf
dence, who. unfortunately, mistook
treachery for faith. But his greatest
bitterness was against the French.
And only a few days before his eXecu-
ton. in a conversation with Won
Busch, the emperor dwelt with sad
ness on the infamy of BaZaine, who
not only had shown himself indiffer-
ent to the fate of Mexico, but who
also before his departure from the
capital had dishonesty sold the fur
niture belonging to the government
and had turned the state equipaSe-
the carriage of Santa Anna-into
money; and who, it was also discov-
cred, had sold weapons and ammuni-
ton to those fighting against the en-
peror. But in forsaking his post
four hours earlier than he had promis-
ed and thus imperiling the city,
seemed the most direct treachery of
all.
1t was, however, only after Maxi
milan became quite certain that
the French troops had left the MeXi-
can valley, that he with a staff of
,f oil IN,
army placed himself at the head of
the troops, and directed the assaults
which were to decide the existence or
downfall of the empire. Here again
treachery followed in his path, for
Marquee, who had been chosen by
him az generalissimo against the re-