to expose
himself to the fire of the enemy. Plans were made for his escape, that he
might put himself at the head of his troops elsewhere, but he refused,
through a sense of honor, to desert his brave companions.

Daily provisions grew scarcer, and Maximilian himself had only the coarse,
tough food which was served to the common soldiers. Day after day Marquez
was looked for with the promised aid, but night after night brought only
disappointment. At length, on the night of May 14, General Lopez, in
charge of the most important point in the city, turned traitor and
admitted two battalions of the enemy. From this point the assailants
swarmed into the city, where terror and confusion everywhere prevailed.
Lopez had not intended that the emperor should be captured, and gave him
warning in time to escape. He attempted to do so, and reached a little
hill outside the town, but here he was surrounded by foes and forced to
deliver up his sword.

Juarez, the Indian president, was at length full master of Mexico, and
held its late emperor in his hands. The fate of Maximilian depended upon
his word. Plans, indeed, were made for his escape, but always at the last
moment he failed to avail himself of them. His friends sought to win for
him the clemency of Juarez, but they found him inflexible. The traitors,
as he called them, should be tried by court-martial, he said and abide the
decision of the court.

Tried they were, though the trial was little more than a farce, with the
verdict fixed in advance. This verdict was death. The condemned, in
addition to Maximilian, were his chiefs in command, Miramon and Medjia.
The late emperor rose early on the fatal morning and heard mass. He
embraced his fellow victims, and as he reached the street said, "What a
beautiful day! On such a one I have always wished to die."

He was greeted with respect by the people in the street, the women
weeping. He responded with a brief address, closing with the words, "May
my blood be the last spilt for the welfare of the country, and if more
should be shed, may it flow for its good, and not by treason. Viva
Independencia! Viva Mexico!"

In a few minutes more the fatal shots were fired, and the empire of
Maximilian was at an end.

MACEO AND THE STRUGGLE FOR CUBAN INDEPENDENCE.

On the 24th of February, 1895, the people of Havana, the capital of Cuba,
were startled by a report that rebels were in the field, a band of
twenty-four having appea