Death of Groehen. 121 



Salm had safely arrived with Groeben in Mexico, but ^^ ™et 

 there with quite unexpected difficulties, created by the je^-lousy 

 of officers who also wanted, places, and the intrigues of the 

 Austrian minister, Count Thun, who did not even deliver the 

 letter of Baron Wydenbruck to the Emperor recommending 

 Salm. He was quite in despair, as I find in his diary and let- 

 ters, and he was made still more unhappy by the death of poor 

 Groeben, who died in his arms on June i8. 



At last, in July, Salm was appointed colonel on the staff of 

 the Emperor, and looked forward to my joining him with great 

 impatience. He expected me to depart on July 9, but I was 

 detained by many circumstances until August. 



I was ready at last, and started from Washington on August 

 10. Driving with Colonel Corvin to the depot and passing 

 the White House, I stopped to say good-bye to the President. 

 He had been very kind to me, and 1 had seen him frequently. 

 We were admitted at once. Asking him point-blank what he 

 thought of affairs in Mexico, he said that the reign of the Em- 

 peror would last still a little while, but he was afraid the United 

 States would have to interfere, though he personally sympa- 

 thised with Maximilian. He wished me, however, good suc- 

 cess, and said that he would always remember me kindly. 



Presenting to him Colonel Corvin, whom he had, however, 

 seen before, I said jokingly that the colonel was a great Cop- 

 perhead, on which Herr von Corvin laughingly answered ht 

 did not care, as the President himself was called still worse 

 names for his moderation in reference to the conquered. 



I embarked at New York on board the * Manhattan/ the 

 same ship in which Salm sailed in February. Amongst the 

 passengers was a most important and consequential-looking 

 personage, who was called ' Monsignor,' and was treated with 

 the utmost reverence whenever he favoured the deck with his 

 appearance, which was however rarely, as he preferred the 

 company of a lady friend travelling with him, a spiritual Sister, 

 I suppose ; for the six-foot-high, broad-shouldered, portly, and 

 haughty-looking dignitary of the Roman Church was the well- 

 known Father Fischer, entrusted with a mission, it was said, 

 to the Emperor Maximilian of Mexico. 



When we, on August 13, arrived in Havannah, we were very 

 disagreeably surprised on hearing that we should have to re- 

 main in quarantine, I do not know for what alleged reasons. 



