nd by debt. Your hacendado master contrives that you cannot pay
even his usurious interest. The food you eat, you must buy from him, at
his prices, of the quality he prescribes. And if your debt be not
sufficient, that is, if there seems a chance of your paying it off, then
you must increase it to obtain your daily bread. Your very children are
slaves at birth, since with their first birth they inherit your chains.
And if you or your children run away, you or they may be brought back as
runaway slaves. It is thus that I find you, Mexicans. And I find you
awaiting a liberator, waiting vainly through the centuries. But now, at
last, the reward of your suffering and your faith has come. In a word,
which shall be formally recorded in the Journal Official, We this day
decree----"

"I knew it," exclaimed Jacqueline, "he always coins his inspirations."

"----We this day decree your debts extinguished, and each and every peon
in all our beautiful country--a free man!"

"Yet with not," said Jacqueline, "a foot of land to be free on. But you
know, messieurs, that Utopia is an asylum for the blind."

"It's a spider on his ceiling," muttered Colonel Dupin, touching his own
head significantly.

The emancipator's face was beatific. He heard the peons acclaim him, as
gradually they began to understand that there was to be no more
unhappiness. But it was curious how far, far away the sweet music
sounded, even when some belated "Viva el Senor Emperador!" cracked in
ludicrous falsetto. For the poet-prince these human chords might have
been the strings of a harp, softly touched. And as far away as
posterity.

Jacqueline fell to clapping her hands noiselessly. "Oh, la-la," she
cried, "if we are not to have an epic flight from Monsieur Eloin!"

It was true in a degree. Five minutes of stupendous history making had
just elapsed, and some graceful tribute was due. The royal favorite had
foreseen the need, and he was prepared; but whether by borrowing or
originating, it is impossible to say.

"'Vous l'avez releve; votre main souveraine
L'a rendu d'un seul coup a la famille humaine.
De ce premier bienfait, Sire, soyez content:
L'Indien fera de vous MAXIMILIEN LE GRAND!'"

"Parbleu, why not?" demanded Jacqueline. "If only he were as great as
his decrees, poor man!"

Maximilian by this time remembered that he must be somebody's guest.
"Who receives Us here?" he asked. But none of his court knew. Even
Monsieur Eloin could only