s, mostly of a religious character, and has some very spacious
public squares. A grand stone aqueduct over five miles long brings a
bountiful supply of good water from the neighboring mountains. The
lofty, substantial masonry of the aqueduct reminds one of similar works
which cross the Campagna at Rome, and those in the environs of Cairo.
This work must have been originally a tremendous undertaking, many of
the arches, where ravines and natural undulations are crossed, being
nearly a hundred feet in height. The cost of the aqueduct is said to
have been borne by a single individual, to whose memory the citizens
have erected a statue on one of the plazas. The water-supply thus
brought into the town feeds a dozen or more large, bright, crystal
fountains in different sections, around which picturesque groups of
water-carriers of both sexes are constantly seen filling their jars for
domestic uses. To an American eye there is a sort of Rip-Van-Winkle look
about the grass-grown streets of Queretaro. We are here some six
thousand feet above the sea, but the place enjoys a most equable and
temperate climate. It was in the suburbs of this city that Maximilian
and his two trusted generals, Mejia and Miramon, the latter ex-president
of the republic, were shot by order of a Mexican court-martial,
notwithstanding the appeal for mercy in their behalf by more than one
European power, in which the United States government also joined. The
Princess Salm-Salm rode across country on horseback a distance of over
one hundred miles, to implore Juarez to spare the life of Maximilian;
but it was in vain. Juarez was obliged to look at the matter in a
political light, whatever his own inclination towards clemency may have
been, and therefore refused to annul the sentence of death. Putting all
sentimentality aside, it seems to the author that Maximilian justly
merited the fate which he so systematically provoked. The measure which
he meted to others was in turn accorded to himself. He issued a decree
that every officer taken in arms against his self-assumed authority
should be promptly shot without trial. This is considered admissible in
the case of professed highwaymen and banditti, but such an order issued
against a large body of organized natives who sincerely believed
themselves fighting for national liberty was unprecedented and uncalled
for. This order was enforced in the instance of some noted patriot
leaders. The Mexican generals Arteaga and