a feather
round Cape Gignano. In a moment it lay at rest under the lee of
the land. Maximilian landed, and found the spot so charming and the
sea-view so superb that he resolved to build a little villa there
for fishing. He bought the land at once, and began by setting out
exotics, persuaded that the soil of such a spot would be favorable
to tropical vegetation. A year later he brought his young bride to
this favored spot, and with a golden wand transformed his bachelor's
fishing-hut into the palace of an emperor.

At this period of his life, Maximilian (an author and a poet) was
greatly interested in architecture. He drew the plans for an exquisite
church (now one of the beauties of Vienna), and draughted with his
own hand those for the grounds and castle of Miramar. The work was
pushed on rapidly, yet in 1859, when Austria was forced to give up
Lombardy, nothing at Miramar was complete except a fancy farm-house
on one of the heights of the property. Maximilian, however, made
his home there with his wife, and they found it so delightful that
when at length the castle was ready for occupation, they lingered
in the farmhouse, which they loved as their first home. It was a
large Swiss chalet, covered with vines and honeysuckle, surrounded
by groves of camellias and pyrus japonicas. How delicious life
must have been to the husband and wife in this solitude, fragrant
with flowers, vocal with the songs of birds, a glory of greenness
round the house, the blue sky overhead, the glittering ocean at
their feet, and holy love and loving kindness everywhere around
them!

Maximilian's generosity rendered wealth indispensable to his complete
happiness, for he loved to surround himself with artists, learned
men, and men of letters. He paid them every kind of attention in
his power, and did not omit those little gifts which are "the beads
on memory's rosary."

"One feels how happy life must have been to husband and wife in
this new Paradise!" cries M. Victor Tissot. "Yet it was Paradise
Lost before long, for alas! in this, as in the other Paradise,
the Eve, the sweet young wife, was tempted by ambition. She took
the apple, ate, and gave it to her husband."

On April 10, 1864, the Mexican deputies commissioned to offer Maximilian
the imperial crown, arrived at Miramar. "We come," said Don Gutierrez
de Estrada, "to beseech you to ascend the throne of Mexico, to which
you have been called by the voice of a people weary of anarchy