French should evacuate. And
then, within a few months, a few weeks, he might lay down the sceptre
voluntarily, to take up the one awaiting him across the ocean.

"We will leave here in the morning," cried Maximilian--"no, to-night, at
once!"

"For Vera Cruz, sire?" queried the padre.

"No, for my capital, for my palace! And father, allow no one to mention
abdication to me again. My decision to stay is irrevocable."

The padre promised faithfully that he should not be disturbed, and this
was one promise that the good padre kept.

CHAPTER X

ALONE AMONG HIS LOVING SUBJECTS

"And Jove himself shall guard a monarch's right."
--_The Iliad_.

Early one morning a month later, a solemn little group of uniformed men
climbed to the roof of Buena Vista, the imperial wedding gift to Marshal
Bazaine, and nerving themselves, pulled down the Tricolor. France, a
Napoleon, were again leaving the New World. It was Evacuation.

The Army of the Expedition came tramping down the Paseo. There were
heavy Dragoons and Cuirassiers, on majestic chargers. There were light
Chasseurs and Lancers, on fleet Arabians that had often proved
themselves against the Mexican pony. There was the clanking of steel,
and the flash of helmets through the dust. The imperial eagles, gilded
anew, were poised for flight back to their native aeries. Lower in the
earthly cloud bobbed the tasseled fez of the bronzed Zouave, and the
perky red pompon on the fighting cap of the little piou-piou. With the
steady beat of the march, the pantalons rouges crossed, spread, crossed,
spread, like regiments of bright, bloody shears. The bands played. And
yet it was not a martial scene. Feet, not hearts, lifted to the fife's
thrilling note. Nor was the multitude that thronged the wide avenue a
fiesta populace. It looked on stolidly, without a huzza, yet without a
hiss. Enthusiasm in either sense would have been relief, but the
Mexicans assisting at the bag and baggage of an invader were as unmoved
as those other spectators, the colossal figures in the glorietas; as the
two Aztec giants, leaning on their war clubs; as Guatemotzin, with high
feathered crest and spear aloft, foreboding as in life to the European
conqueror; as Columbus, who, having himself suffered, gave now no sign
of remorse for the blows which this new hemisphere gave the old; as
Charles IV. on his iron horse, who had bargained with a former Napoleon
t