Palestine daily herald. [volume] (Palestine, Tex.) 1902-1949, 1906-09-28
THE SAD FATE OF
EMPRESS CARLOTTA
KING LEoPoLD's SISTER is VERY
ILL AND HER DEATH is ONLY
A MATTER OF A FEW DAYS.
Special to the Herald.

Special to the Herald.
Brussels, Sept. 2S.-King Leopold
has made haste to deny the reports
that have been current for several
weeks regarding the alleged death of
his sister. insane Empress Carlotta.
widow of the Inflated Emperor Maxi
milan of Mexico. Though some per-
sons do not hesitate to cast doubt
upon his majestys denials it may be
stated authoritatively that the en-
press is not dead But she is so i'll
just now that only faint hopes are
entertained for her recovery.
The story of the poor, insane en-
press has often been told, but the
tragedy of her life is so interviewer
with one of the most thrilling chap
tiers of New World history that it
will bear repetition at the present
time, when it is but a matter of a
short time. perhaps of days, until her
earthly miseries are relieved by
death.
Born a princess. and educated to
wear a crown, Carlotta has passed
forty of her sixty-five years within
the walls of an asylum for the in
sane. Married at II, queen at "a
and a lunatic at 26, she was bereft
of father. husband, empire and reason
in the short space of eighteen months,
and then, by the irony of fate, for
ever banished from human memory.
Her career was almost microscopic
in the rapidity of its changes-prom
Using in it's inception, magnificent in
its rise. pathetic, dramatic, tragic in
its decline and fall
Although Carlotta was more pc
tential in Mexican history during her
short reign in that country than was
her imperial husband himself, the
records of that time ignore her efforts,
belitle her achievements and refer to
her endowments of executive ability,
political sagacity, mental culture and
strong womanly character in the most
impersonal and incidental manner
AS matter of fact it was her regal
training, her dominant spirit, her con-
slant insistence, which prevailed over
the weak. vacillating. easily in
fiuenced and almost effeminate char
acter Of Emperor Macmillan.
Carlotta was exactly "a years of
age, Macmillan 80, when their eyes
beheld for the first time the land
across the wateru they hoped to
degenerate a natioH Their entry M
to the City of Mexico was a triumphal
one. The splendors of their court
were unprecedented, for Carlotta
knew well how to be an empress.
But the Mexicans fought bravely for
their freedom, the United States in
terfered. and Napoleon was ordered
TO withdraw his troops. Here again
Carlotta was dominant She would |
go herself to France and intercede |
with Emperor Napoleon.
What could be more pathetic than
the spectacle of the girl empress [
pleading with the Emperor of France
and the Pope of Rome for the means
and soldiers to save from ruin the
empire of her husband, at a time
when Macmillan mad already been
many weeks dead Carlotta's am
bition and pride were crushed, her
heart broken. Young, beautiful, am
bilious. loving, on the very threshold
of youth and hope, she was seized
and torn from the world by the re-
lentless hand of unreason, and cast /
into the midnight of utter blank.
For forty years she has been ban.
ished to an oblivion that is worse
than death. Those who recall her to
mind as proud and imperious beauty
would fail to recognize her today, all
bent and broken, her snow white hair
framing a face waxy white in COM