168 Ten Years of my Life. 



officers. He drove in a carriage drawn by four white mules. 

 We saw him pass, but the wht)le procession made on all of us 

 a rather sad impression. Van der Smissen, who took a rather 

 dark view of the situation of Maximilian, said, ' It looked to 

 him as it the Emperor were being led to his execution.' He 

 had expected him to abdicate, which was the joint wish of 

 Bazaine and ot General Castelneau, whom Napolean HI. had 

 sent especially to advise this course, in order to facilitate the 

 arrangements with the Liberals. As I, however, said before, 

 Maximilian listened to the promises of Miramon, Marquez, 

 and Father Fischer, and resolved to remain, and was now on 

 his way from Orizava to Mexico. 



The Emperor stopped four leagues from Buena Vista, at 

 Ayotola, and Salm had there an audience, and also an inter- 

 view with Father Fischer, receiving from them authorisation 

 to raise a regiment of cavalry, which he hoped to recruit from 

 the disbanded legions. Therefore, not to lose sight or them, 

 we accompanied the Belgians on their march to Puebla, where 

 we arrived on January 9. 



Travelling in this manner I enjoyed the beauty of the 



, country far more than had been the case on my passing it in 



the diligence. We had always the beautiful mountain giants 



before us, the Sierra Nevada, the Popocatapetl, and the peak 



of Orizava. 



Popocatapetl means in Indian language a ' woman in white,' 

 and the Mexicans have a legend about it. One of these 

 mountains, which were once mighty giants, killed for some 

 reason or other — I suppose jealousy — his wife, and laid her on 

 the Sierra Nevada, where she is still plainly to be seen. On pas- 

 sing not too far from it in very clear weather, I. was much 

 struck by the appearance of that mountain, which showed as 

 plainly as if chiselled in while marble the gigantic form of a 

 reclinmg woman. The whole figure, shape, arms, and even 

 her dishevelled hair, are to be seen with wonderful distinct- 

 ness. 



On our arrival in Puebla I fell ill, and the uncertainty in re- 

 ference to our future made me still more so. Everybody was 

 seized, as it were, by a moral panic. Reports of the most 

 contradictory character, but all distressing were circulated, and 

 rhe desire to leave Mexico and go to Europe became general. 

 Xobodv knew wliat the Emperor intended to do, but the 



