nd a seaport on the Gulf of Mexico which he intended to
call Miramar.

His wife was an indefatigable helpmeet. She wrote all his European
correspondence, but resented the interference of the French, and could
be curt and energetic when the occasion called for self-assertion.

An American gentleman who saw her at a court-ball at this period
thus describes her: "She was imperial in every look and action.
The dignified and stately step so well suited to her station, and
with _her_ perfectly natural, would have seemed affectation in
another. She did not seem remarkably tall, except in comparison
with others. Her voice possessed a refinement peculiar to birth,
education, and superior natures."

But while the emperor and empress were laboring for the improvement
of their realm, the Juarists were increasing in strength, and banditti
carried on their enterprises with impunity up to the very gates
of Mexico. Day after day the stage was robbed between Mexico and
Jalapa. The Marquis de Radepont, a quiet traveller, saved himself by
killing half-a-dozen highwaymen with his revolver; but the Belgian
ambassador, on his way to announce to their Imperial Majesties the
accession of Leopold II., the brother of Carlotta, was robbed of
all his jewelry and money.

In consequence of these disorders the emperor signed, on Oct. 3,
1865, in spite of the remonstrances of Marshal Bazaine, the French
general-in-chief in Mexico, an order to the civil and military
authorities to treat all armed guerilla bands as brigands, and to
apply to them the utmost rigor of martial law.

This was at once interpreted into permission to shoot all prisoners;
and three promising young Juarist generals who had fallen into the
hands of one of Maximilian's commanders were shot immediately,
leaving behind them pathetic farewell letters to their friends.
Maximilian did not foresee that he was signing his own death-warrant
when he put his hand to this act of severity.

Juarez himself, with a body of his followers, had retreated to
the frontier, ready to pass over into Texas if the French attacked
him. But the French were too few and too scattered to occupy a
vast region of country where every inhabited house was a refuge
for their foes. Moreover, the interest of Napoleon in the empire
of Mexico was at an end. He hated a long war at any time, and was
always ready to abandon an enterprise when he could not carry out
his projects by a _coup de main_. The war was extr