A Sad Mistake. 179 



eral had given, it appeared, this affairs into the hands of Col- 

 onel , to whom I should have to state the conditions of 



the officers. I told Colonel Leon that Madam Baz would go 

 with me to Porfirio Diaz next day herself. He insisted, how- 

 ever, on my seeing the Colonel, and we drove to his head- 

 quarters in Tacubaya. 



The Colonel expected me ; but when I told him that I 

 would come next day with Madame Baz, he permitted me to 

 return to Mexico, where I had promised to be before evening.' 



Meanwhile it had become dark, and when I, with my maid 

 and Jimmy, approached the garita, the sentinel called out, 

 ' Who goes there ?' In my surprise I made a very sad mistake, 

 for instead of answering ' Amigo ' I very resolutely called out 

 ' Enemigo !' The sentinel answered at once by a shot, but the 

 bullet whizzed harmlessly past us. As I was, however, afraid 

 of a more effective repetition of the dose, I sought shelter be- 

 hind the arches of the aqueduct which runs there, and Mar- 

 garita, frightened out of her wits, knelt down and prayed to all 

 the saints of the almanac. 



To make them understand at the garita .that I was by no 

 means an ' enemigo,' I called to the soldiers, and cried out, 

 ' Viva Maximiliano !'' This time old Colonel Campos heard 

 me, and came cut to fetch us. He was an old acquaintance 

 of mine, and he had promised to wait for me at the garita, but 

 expected me sooner. He was quite distressed that one of his 

 soldiers should have fired on me. 



When I went next morning to Madame Baz, she said that 

 she must wait until two o'clock p.m, when she should hear 

 from her husband. Returning at that hour to her house, she 

 told me that her husband had been ordered that night to go to 

 Escobedo, and that she therefore could not accompany me ; 

 she would, however, send a messenger to Porfirio Diaz, with a 

 note stating that I was really deputed by the Prussian minister 

 and foreign offfcers. I tried hard to induce her to go with me, but 

 she would not. I therefore had to go alone. Colonel Leon 

 and the others w^aited for me with an escort, to bring me and 

 Madame Baz to Porfirio Diaz. 



' As I had not changed my dress for three days, and was to 

 go on horseback to head-quarters, which were several leagues 

 from Tacubaya, I went to the house of Madame Hube. As I 

 did not tell her what I was about, she was very angry with me. 



