Belgians and
Austrians of Maximilian's immediate following. The ill-fated Austrian
wavered between his advisers--whether to abandon the thankless task
upon which he was engaged, or whether to stay with it to the bitter
end. He ultimately chose the latter course; reversing a first intention
of abdicating, returned to Mexico city; left thence for Queretaro, and
intrenched himself, with an effective force of some nine thousand
Imperialists, in that town. The Republicans, twenty-one thousand
strong, laid strenuous siege to and attacked the place, suffering
several repulses; but the treachery of Lopez, of the Imperialist army,
afforded them the entrance to the town, and Queretaro fell.

The fate of the Emperor Maximilian was now in the hands of Juarez. A
court-martial was called, and Maximilian was permitted to select
counsel for his defence. The deliberations resulted in a sentence of
death against Maximilian and his two chiefs and faithful generals,
Miramon and Mejia. Juarez took his pen to sign the death-warrant, when
before him--the Indian President, son of a despised race--there
appeared and kneeled the figure of the Austrian princess, Carlota,
supplicating for clemency for her husband. It is said that Juarez
wavered, but at that fateful moment the stern Lerdo appeared at the
door of the apartment, and shaking a warning finger, uttered those
words which sealed the doom of Maximilian, and which have come down
ever since in Mexico's history as a species of national axiom--"Ahora o
nunca se salva la patria!"[22] Juarez signed; the condemned Emperor
took his stand upon the Cerro de las Campanas outside Queretaro, and
faced the file of carbines pointed at his breast, serene and dignified.
"Take you the place of honour in the centre," he said in turn to
Miramon and Mejia--the latter a full-blooded Indian general who had
been privately offered, and had refused, a pardon by Juarez. But both
declined, and the three brave men faced forward. A volley rang out upon
the early morning air, and with it passed the life of Maximilian and
his chiefs, and the last Imperial _regime_ of Mexico.

[Footnote 22: "Now or never for our country's salvation."]

This execution--or murder--of Maximilian--for the student is at liberty
to term it which he will, according to the trend of his
sympathies--took place on June 19, 1867. The wife of the ill-fated
member of the unfortunate House of Hapsburg went mad, and in that state
lived long in Europe