session of that
fortified height the position at the mill was untenable. A fierce and
unnecessary, though victorious battle on our part was here fought,
wherein the Americans suffered considerable loss, principally from a
masked battery, which was manned by volunteers from the city workshops.
Near to Molino del Rey the Mexicans have erected a monument
commemorating their own valor and defeat, when close to a city of nearly
three hundred thousand inhabitants their redoubtable army was beaten and
driven from the field by about ten thousand Americans. The Mexicans did
not and do not lack for courage, but they required proper leaders which
they had not, and a unity of purpose in which they were equally
deficient.

As intimated, a portion of the spacious castle forms the residence of
the chief of the republic, being thus the "White House," as it is
termed, of Mexico, in which are many spacious halls and galleries, all
of which are handsomely decorated, the outside being surrounded by wide
marble terraces and paved courts. Here Maximilian expended half a
million dollars in gaudy ornamentations and radical alterations to suit
his lavish desires. The interior decorations were copies from Pompeii.
For the brief period which he was permitted to occupy the castle, it was
famous for a succession of _fetes_, receptions, dinners, and dances. No
European court could surpass the lavish elegance and dissipation which
was indulged in by Maximilian and his very sweet but ambitious wife
Carlotta. Her personal popularity and influence was fully equal to that
of her husband, while her tenacity of purpose and strength of will far
excelled that of the vacillating and conceited emperor.

The view from the lofty ramparts is perhaps the finest in the entire
valley of Mexico, which is in form an elevated plain about thirty by
forty miles in extent, its altitude being a little less than eight
thousand feet above the sea. This view embraces the national capital,
with its countless spires, domes, and public buildings, the magnificent
avenues of trees leading to the city, its widespread environs, the
looming churches of Guadalupe, the village-dotted plain stretching away
in all directions, the distant lakes glowing beneath the sun's rays, and
having for a background at the eastward two of the loftiest,
glacier-crowned mountains on the continent, bold and beautiful in
outline, tranquil and immovable in their grandeur. The steady glow of
the warm sunl