, for example?"

"Why, that--that Maximilian would not have pardoned?"

"On the contrary, senor mio, that is precisely what the generous
Maximilian did intend. Listen--Miramon was 'to delay execution until His
Majesty should pass upon it.'"

"No--no, Your Excellency, he would not have----"

"O ho, so you think you've missed your last stroke! You think that there
is no memory for me in this dispatch! But don't whine so, because, man,
there is, there is! It may not be the memory of my intended death, but
it is the memory of--intended insult. Oh, what a patriot he must have
thought me, this good, regenerating prince! He had already offered to
make me chief justice. But this time he would have saved me from his own
Black Decree. And I would have been touched by his clemency? I would
have accepted, the grateful tears streaming from my eyes? And thus I
would be regenerated? It sounds beautiful. It sounds like the chivalrous
Middle Ages, when there were Black Princes along with the Black Decrees.
My liege lord _he_ would have been, but my liege Patria, what of
her?--Well, well, well, he has three days in which to understand me
better, and to think of his own regeneration a little."

"Then," cried Murgia, limping gleefully toward him, "then there will be
no pardon?"

"I see," said Juarez, suddenly cold and very calm, "I am now corrupted.
I am now safe, like the others. Take that chair, wait!"

Saying which the Presidente left his desk, clapped his hands for the
orderly, and seated himself near the window. To the orderly he said, "Go
to the diligence office across the Plaza. Ask for Colonel Driscoll, the
American officer who commands the escort of the two lawyers. Say that I
wish to see him here at once."

When Driscoll appeared, Juarez put to him this question, "Colonel--I'll
say 'General' whenever you decide to be a citizen among us--Colonel, can
you reach Queretaro early to-morrow morning by riding all night?"

"Not with my own horse, sir. He's getting old, and deserves better."

"Then it's all right, senor. You will take any horse you want. I have
telegraphed to stop the execution, but there's been no reply. You must
therefore see General Escobedo yourself. Look on my desk. Do you find a
packet there?"

"Yes."

"Sealed? Well, break it open. Now read the contents to my visitor here."

Driscoll unfolded a long sheet of foolscap, and began to read. Murguia
the while fidgeted in an agony, but listening further, hi