floral enthusiasm and spirit
possessed the populace. Balcony, doorway, carriage windows, and market
baskets, married women and youthful senoritas, boys and girls, cripples
and beggars, all indulged in floral decoration and display. It appeared
that several carloads of flowers came from far-away Jalapa to supply the
demand in the national capital made upon the kingdom of Flora for this
flower festival.

CHAPTER XII.

Castle of Chapultepec.--"Hill of the Grasshopper."--Montezuma's Retreat.
--Palace of the Aztec Kings.--West Point of Mexico.--Battles of
Molino del Rey and Churubusco.--The Mexican White House.--High above
Sea Level.--Village of Tacubaya.--Antique Carvings.--Ancient Toluca.
--The Maguey.--Fine Scenery.--Cima.--Snowy Peaks.--Leon d'Oro.--The
Bull-Ring and Cockpit.--A Literary Institution.--The Coral Tree.--
Ancient Pyramids.--Pachuca.--Silver Product of the Mines.--A Cornish
Colony.--Native Cabins.--Indian Endurance.

One of the pleasantest excursions in the environs of the capital is in a
southwesterly direction to the castle of Chapultepec, a name which
signifies the "Hill of the Grasshopper." It is situated at the end of
the long Paseo de la Reforma, the grandest avenue in the country,
running straight away two miles and more between statuary and ornamental
trees to this historic and attractive locality. About Chapultepec are
gathered more of the grand memories of the country than on any other
spot south of the Rio Grande. Here it was intended to establish the most
grand and sumptuous court of the nineteenth century, over which
Maximilian and Carlotta were to preside as emperor and empress. Their
ambition was limitless; but how brief was their day-dream! The fortress
occupies a very commanding position, standing upon a rocky upheaval some
two hundred feet above the surrounding plain, thus rising abruptly out
of the marshy swamp. It is encircled by a beautiful park composed mostly
of old cypress-trees, many of which are draped in gray Spanish moss, as
soft and suggestive an adornment as that of the moss-rose. We ascend the
hill to the castle by a deeply-shaded road, formed by a wood so dense
that the sun scarcely penetrates its darkness. On the side of this
tree-embowered road, about halfway to the summit, one is shown a natural
cave, before the mouth of which is a huge iron gate. Herein, it is said,
the Aztec kings deposited their treasures. Here, also, Cortez is
beli