--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Gates, Susa Young collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 10 number: 2 published: 1906-12 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'Susa Young Gates, "Maximilian: A Story of Mexico—I," *Improvement Era* 10, no. 2 (December 1906): 115–128.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera1002unse transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers. identifier: improvementera1002unse start_page: 115 end_page: 128 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1906-12) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera1002unse publication_year: 1906 note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1906, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # Maximilian: A Story of Mexico—I MAXIMILIAN. BY SUSA YOUNG GATES. I. CHRISTMAS EVE IN OLD MEXICO. The fountain in the old courtyard of the palace of Montezuma was filled with perfumed waters in honor of the approach of the Christmas season, dear to all Christians, in every land and under every sky. Around it flashed and flamed a thousand drooping flowers and ferns, swayed by the spray and delicate breeze occasioned by the rapid fall of the water. The great square itself was a crowded maze of shrubbery and trees, some bending with red and yellow globes, and others filled with fragrant blossoms of coming fruitage. In the trees flew brilliant-plumaged, tropical birds; the air was full of the buzz and glory of the humming-birds. But over all the brilliance and glory, a crowd of black-coated vultures flew high in the blue. The palace was squared about the majestic courtyard, its apartments opening into the light and fragrance of the green and gold heart of all this semi-barbaric luxury. There were two stories in the palace, the upper one reached by steps, and a balcony extending around three sides of the courtyard wall. Christmas in a foreign land is a lonely festival to any American heart, and to the lady who sat embroidering beneath an orange tree, this day was doubly sad and drear. The tragic year of 1866 was a heavy burden on t1ie hearts of all Christendom whose eyes were upon old Mexico. Near the lady, crouched at her very knees, was a dark-eyed maiden, whose straight glossy black hair and olive skin betrayed her Indian origin. 116 IMPROVEMENT ERA. The girl ivas weaving a garland of flowers, and chanting low, as the wreath grew under her fingers, snatches of an ancient ballad written by the noble Indian king of Tezcuco: "Now would I sing, since time and place Are mine, — and oh, with thee May this my song obtain the grace My purpose claims for me. I wake these notes on song intent, But call it rather a lament. Do thou, beloved, now delight In these my flowers, pure and bright, Eejoicing with thy friend; Now let us banish pain and fear, For, if our joys are measured here, Life's sadness hath its end." The plaintive words, and minor chords, which were a confused mingling of Indian and Spanish, depressed the listening lady, as no sobs or tears might do. **Hush, my Malinche, or you will have me crying like the fountain yonder. Your songs are the spirit of tragedy; just as all vour countrymen's faces are a Book of Lamentations. Sometimes, I can intepret them with my own healthy visions of hope; but to day, I cannot bear them. There's an uncanny influence in every nook of this old memory-haunted palace. But I will have none of it. The place is now mine, and I will hear no such talk." The girl dropped her lapful of flowers, and with sweet-lowliness of repentance, she knelt at her mistress' feet, and bowed her head to the earth. Then, without a word, she sprang up, and with the gesture of a darting hamming-bird, she flew around, in the fantastic m.easure ot a dance, which was the most exquisite poetry of motion. Her draperies of white and vivid green, circled and swirled about her with extravagant, undulating waves. In a moment, her clear, soft treble voice arose in an Indian song, which fell with wild rhythm on the still air. She stamped her tiny feet, and producing a pair of Spanish castanets, she rattled and struck the peculiar, syncopated time of her trilling melody. "Oh, Malinche, where did you learn that newest trick of your dancing? Who taught you the flashing grace of the proud Castil- MAXIMILIAN. 117 lian, mingling with the soft undulating languor of a half -Egyptian? You are a fairy child. I never saw you do that dance before?" The girl paused, well pleased to see the brightened look on the face of her friend, the princess. "Who taught the trees to sway, and the flowers to bend? Can you tell me that?" she answered with a dainty touch of what might be saucinessin a more favored child of nature. "Surely so, my dusky maid. The same power, no doubt which gives you that charming bird-trill in your throat, which would be the envy of a Malibran. But come, I can see you are unusually excited. What hac happened to rouse the slumbering fires of your quiet nature?" Hesitating, for a moment, the girl cast her eyes suspiciously about the courtyard, and peered cautiously into the dt^rkened doorways which fronted the court like a thousand blinking eyes. All seemed quiet. And after hanging her garlands over the outstretched arm of the marble statue which stood near the fountaiu. half dripping with the spray, the girl once more crouched at the feet of her mistress-friend. ' 'Dear associate princess, I have seen my lovely ancestor, once more." "You mean Marina, the companion of that terrible Cortes?" "Even so. Thrice before hath she approached my couch, when night and silence make it possible for her to touch my eyes with clearer sight." "You mean that you dreamed about her," said the practical American lady, who was accustomed to the verbiage of the gentle Indians. The pained look in the face of the girl at this prosaic ren- dering of her night vision touched the lady so deeply that she re- solved to accept without worded question whatever her friend might say. So she caressed the olive cheek gently, and said, "Go on, my very dear little dove." The loving adjuration of all her maternal Indian ancestors soothed the tender heart, and the girl once more opened the secret floodgates of a repressed and silent soul. "She stood beside my couch," recited the soft voice, "and her her unhappy state in eyes were sad, so sad. She told me again of 118 IMPROVEMENT ERA. that other world, but assured me that the time was close at hand when her prison doors would be opened, and she could then ascend to the heavenly courts above." The lady stirred to place her embroidery away, so that she might give undivided attention to the little story-teller at her knees. With a satisfied s^'gh, the girl resumed: "Marina bade me look. And as I raised my eyes I saw my mighty ancestor, the lordly Montezuma, and he was seated on a throne of emerald and gold. His hand held in its grasp the destinies of all the Anahuac. And then a mist arose from the lakes of Tenochtitlan, and overhead black vultures swung and circled with slowly narrowing rings. The mist was rising fast, and from the east there swept a multitude of soldiers, marching and ever marching. The throne was tottering as the heavy tread of gaudycoated soldiers surrounded it with grim fury in their eyes. Their eyes! Oh me, their eyes! I heard no sound, but those dread eyes burned down like fire in my soul. And then I saw a scroll unfolded in the heavens, and on it was the words, 'No king may reign in all the land of Anahuac' The mist crept o'er the throne, the soldiers charged, and then I saw the darkness swallow all alike. I could not speak, nor even look for many minutes. As I gathered strength, I raised my eyes, but only saw the vultures rising up from out the mist, and slowly fly into space. Again the vision opened. This time I saw another king, and he was sitting on the throne of Montezuma. But he was such a noble king. His face was white as a god's own face, and as he sat I murmured, * 'Tis Quetzalcoatl come back to rule and reign. But even as I ' thought my thought, above his gracious head I saw the black" winged vultures circle and swing. He looked at me, this mighty king, and as he looked, my heart flew out and bowed beneath his feet. He only smiled to see my deep devotion. And then, the vultures, circling near, breathed in my very face their rotting breath, and fanned my hair with their dread wings. And oh, their eyes! The fury in their reddened eyes. I tried to scream, but soldiers marching, marching past, filled all my shuddering soul with awe. And once again, they crowded around the doomed throne, and once again the mist arose from out the lakes and enveloped both men and throne with solemn, awful silence. MAXIMILIAN. 119 gloom and death. I trembled with the agony which stood upon my brow in beads of ice, but still I could not die. And so I closed my eyes, to shut the horrid vision from my gaze. But soon I opened them, for in my heart, there lingered such a longing to see my fair god, if only once again, that I could not refrain. But all was faded; and only in the clouds there floated high and silent the inky bir^s of prey I saw before. And as before, the heavenly scroll unrolled; and as before, there appeared in firey characters these words, 'No king may reign in all the land of Anahuac' Then when my heart was breaking with the weight of woe and pain, my fair god stood above me in the mists, his tender eyes bent down to me, and on his face a smile of saddest peace. And she who had bestowed the vision, my ancestress Marina, said in silvery tones, 'Be not afraid, nor mourn: When thou shalt cross the brazen sea. Thy lord shall owe his life to thee. 'Tis written in the heavens! Some day when Quetzalcoatl comes to reign on earth, you both, and all of his and thine- shall meet him in the clouds.' And thus my dearest vision faded. But overhead, the vultures still were swinging, yet near to them, there hovered now one bright-plumaged humming bird, with jeweled wings and throat, and with his wings he beat away the ugly birds of night and gloom. 'Good omened bird,' I cried, 'thou art a messenger from dread Huitzilopochtli!' I knew that I was not asleep, friend, for I could hear the great cathedral bell toll out the hour throughout all the night. And as the vision closed " the hour struck Just then the bell in the tower jingled out its half-melody be- fore the stroke of six. Tne lady and the maiden started as if a blow had fallen on their ears, and the Indian screamed and hid her face in her mistress' lap. "The clock struck six and I knew that I was not asleep." The long dream-chanted words of the girl, the images they called up, had enveloped the steady-brained American woman with a shadowy gloom or mist, which tied her hand and foot. She was almost in a trance herself. As the bell of the great cathedral " — 120 IMPROVEMENT ERA. clock began to chime for the hour, the sound roused the hypnotized faculties of both maid and mistress. On the same instant, a servant approached the princess with a profound obeisance, and handed her a letter. With shaking fingers she tore it open, and after a moment she exclaimed: "Malinche, this letter is from my lord and husband. Prince Felix Salm-Salm. He writes me that the emperor has decided to honor our poor palace with his presence for a few hours, on his way to visit some interior mountain towns. Come, forget your morbid, cruel dream, and let us think 'twas bred by eating too much sweets before you went to bed. Come, child, 'tis Maximilian who comes to us, the first European monarch who ever sat upon a Mexican throne. But I know that he is great and good and wise, and my husband loves him well. And so we will welcome him, because we are all good Mexicans, wether we be of Indian, Spanish or American birth, and we'll not remember aught of your wicked dream come. The heated quiet of the peaceful quadrangle was soon broken by a hundred hurrying feet, who flew hither and yon to do their mistress' bidding. Minutes flew into hours, and hours brought the setting sun to gild the squared roofs of the great pile of buildings with the tropical glory of a Christmas eve neath southern skies. Within the courtyard, only the humming-birds seemed just as usual, and the vultures, pacing up and down the parapets, or rising high into the evening sky. But night closed the flower leaves, sent even the birds to nests, and soothed the restless splashing of the ********* perfumed fountain, while overhead, the great cathedral clock chimed out the hours with solemn, sure insistence. The quiet of the old Mexican palace was broken into a thousand jarring sounds the next morning, as mailed men and prancing horses clattered and crowded neath the earthen battlements. The brilliant uniforms of the French cavalry gleamed in the Christmas sun with rich contrast to the drowsy green of inner trees, and the dun walls of outer buildings. Servants hurried about with anxious faces, for even the lowest menial felt the importance of this regal visit. The soft-footed Indians glided to and fro, while MAXIMILIAN. 121 half-breed Mexican servitors cursed and slashed about with little regard for who came in the way. As soon as the emperor had refreshed his weary body, the princess led the way to the state drawing room. Here were gathered the neighboring nobles, who had come thus hurriedly to pay more or less sincere allegiance to this foreign potentate who had been forced upon them by the great Louis Napoleon, and who had held his tottering empire by reason of the flashing sabers of the French soldiers. Maximilian sat upon the raised dais, and received with cold and stately courtesy the homage of these alien lords. His own sad heart, conscious of only the most exalted motives in his enforced sovereignty over those plotting, cruel Mexicans, was full of deep chagrin that in all the three years of his residence in Mexico, he had been able to excite only hatred and hostility, instead of the loyalty and patriotism which had been his dream for the future. With half-sullen looks, and ill-concealed scowls, the haughty Mexicans bowed unwilling knees to greet the emperor of Mexico. But he was very patient, and only sighed, and taught his lips a more genial smile of welcome, as they bowed before him. The clash of arms, the heayy music of his own beloved musicians, the heated atmosphere, and changing colors, his long night's march without sleep, wrought upon the monarch's fancy; and he saw them as a moving panorama across the distant wall- space; he saw himself upon his throne, with the mists of the lakes rising around him; he heard the sound of clashing sabers; and over all circled and swung the silent, black, waiting vultures. But even as his tired senses reeled, he gathered himself and sat upright with determined strength; the better to control his scattered energies. As the crowd across the salon grew more dense, a little, dark-eyed Indian maid glided between the assembled men and women, and as she neared the outer edge, her startled eyes caught and held for one brief instant the calm, sad eyes of the emperor. With a quick, in-breathed cry of pain, the girl swayed and would have fallen, but that she was caught and carried out by a soldier, standing near. "Who was that?" said the emperor, under his breath to the Prince Salm-Salm, who stood by him. 122 IMPROVEMENT ERA. "A little Indian princess, descendant of Montezuma, who serves my wife as companion and maid." The weary eyes of his majesty grew misty with a quick sympathy for another's suffering, but his brain and heart were full of big sorrows and heavy burdens. What was an Indian maid to him? The Christmas day was full of noisy pageantry, and the hours were crowded with sickening details of murders on the highway, and assassins ever in ambush. The sovereign's heart was heavy with a thousand wrongs he longed to right, and a thousand woes he was helpless to assuage. All things pass! The Princess Salm-Salm, with her good sense, shut out as soon as she might, the crowd of half-curious, half-scornful over-lords, who sought to fill their sovereign's ears with useless tales of robbery, arson, and common plunder everywhere in Mexico. With approaching twilight she managed to distribute the great retinue so skillfully that she and her husband were alone with their guest. She led the way to the inner courtyard, where the perfumed waters fell, and the flowers in the Christmas dusk sent out a flood of fragrance on the balmy air. With a woman's tact, she drew the thoughts of her unhappy guest to ask about her own beloved home in the United States. He listened with eager interest to all her stories of a rushing prosperity, and a lusty,young civilization, which was to him, as Arabian tales. Wrapped in the traditions and accumulated gloom of a score of monarchical centuries, he was eager to learn all t\iere was to know of this daring, uncrowned nation, whose glory was work, and whose pride was achievement. The palace grew gradually still, and the bustling sounds of day and confusion slowly melted into the arms of darkness and sleep. It was a singular Christmas for the Mexican monarch, and his one European and one American subject. Enshrouded with a mist as of coming tears, the night winds played about the orange trees, with whispered sighs. While they sat thus, the sound of castanets, and softly swishing skirts broke in upon their quiet words, and Marina flashed " MAXIMILIAN. 123 before their eyes, her white and brilliant green gleaming draperies, embroidered with exquisite feather designs, flying like a cloud about her small person. hung emeralds, and around In her ears her waist and throat flashed opal and emerald chains. The end of her skirt was hung with tiny silver bells. In a moment, she burst forth in a rippling melody of sound, and all the birds of tropic lands found an echo in her throat. The little party sat spell-bound. The girl played upon their hearts with the subdued witchery of exquisite music, as if she held them in the hollow of her hand. She circled about them, and anon, her delicate foot beat the mosaics with a thrilling accent of tinkling rhythm. The swaying body cau, 124 IMPROVEMENT ERA. "But even so, she well deserves her. glorious pedigree. I trust our subjects remember to give honor where 'tis due; as unto that great last king of his race, thy sire, my maid, the mighty Montezuma." The Princess Salm-Salm had much ado to prevent the maiden from once more prostrating herself at the emperor's feet. But the sturdy American blood within her veins held a species of contempt for those who could so completely humble themselves to any man, be he warrior, potentate or king. And so she handed Marina the little guitar, upon which she sometimes accompanied herself, and bade her sing her most cheerful song. Itwas fortunate that the guest could not understand the Indian tongue, for the girl's throat was swelling with an improvised confession of loyalty for the white god, who had ccme to free the people and to cleanse the earth. But the song was wellsung and the guest was soothed and comforted by the spirit of the unknown words. ^ * * 4: s): « The emperor's suite opened directly on to the courtyard, and that after the good night ceremonies were all over, he turned to his rooms; but he was too restless for sleep, so after his gentlemenin-waiting had been dismissed, he stepped through the long window into the soft gloom of the whispering palms and groves, to quiet heart and brain with a midnight stroll. His heart was very heavy; he could have borne the slights and scorns which his noble relatives in Europe seemed intent on showering upon him; the desertion and treachery of Louis Napoleon, that mighty and selfish one, had lost its bitterest sting. But the knife that was cutting at his very heart-strings was the gradual desertion of the Mexicans. Those who had been loudest in their clamor for him to come, and most profuse in their declarations of loyalty and devotion, these were one by one deserting him, and going b?ck to support Juarez. Oh, it was bitter to the heart which had cherished a friend as scabbard its sword; and to be betrayed, misunderstood, by his trusted ones— ah God, the agony in Gethsemane was not alone for the coming death! It was the betrayal by Judas, trusted treasurer of the small company; and bitterer than all, even Peter and John, his close friends who knew MAXIMILIAN. 125 him for what he was, could not watch while he voi'ied his last earthly prayer! The cruelty of desertion is never known by those who have not suffered the stress of misunderstanding and difference at the very hearthstone! As he paced the silent paths, he heard the occasional trill of the night-bird; and then, the sweet, solemn tones of the cathedral clock striking the hour of one, reminded him of the little scene he had witnessed there two hours before. Just then his foot struck against something on the tessellated pavement, and he stooped and picked up a pair of castanets, just at the edge of the fountain. With a little sigh, he turned to hang the toy upon the branch of the pepper tree which stood near, and his thoughts rested a moment with the brilliant but serious-faced child who had amused him so cleverly. A soft hand stretched out under his raised arm for the castanets, and with a low word of thanks the girl grasped her lost toy. "May I take it?" she asked with a low, happy laugh. The tall man looked down at this little, dark creature, and his keen eyes searched her face with severe scrutiny to fathom the reason for her unlocked for appearance in this place at such an hour. The gentle eyes were burning with a light never seen there before by any man, but the innocent gaze was utterly unafraid, and as pure and confiding as a gazelle's might be. This, her god, her deliverer, her worshiped one, who, in the presence of was so awe-inspiring that her breath froze others, upon her lips, was here alone with her. They were far from the glaring light of the sun or the eyes of men, and so she stood, as maid to man, and gazed fearlessly into his splendid eyes, unabashed and undismayed. Why should she fear? There was no cruelty, no vice in the spiritual atmosphere which surrounded this man. That which v/omen most fear in man was absent from this lordly king. Her lack of guile, her sweet confidence shook him as no purposed temptation could have done. And because of that, and of his ov\n high sense of honor, he allowed a harsh note to creep into his question. "Why are you here, little one, at this hour?" She shivered slightly as the tone struck her ear; she had 126 IMPROVEMENT ERA. heard that tone, sometimes, as all her race did, from Mexican lords. But she peered quickly into his eyes, and what she saw comforted her much for all that her ears had suffered. The man stood still, as if unwilling by even one motion to encourage himself or the girl beside Mm, in foolish thoughts. Marina slid down, with a happy laugh, into the stone seat near the fountain. Then she answered his question: "I came to hear the flowers talk withmy nostrils — to taste the tones of the my throat, and to find my cas- night-bird in tanets; but most of all, to see my lord— my Mighty One." Surrounded all his life with formalism, and saturated with the artificial atmosphere of courts, the man was utterly unprepared for this frank avowal. Again he gazed sternly into the uplifted, glowing eyes. He would have turned on his heel with disgust, if there had been one self-conscious glance beneath those lids. But the exquisite purity of every line and feature of that face, the absence of anything like coquetry or insincericy in the gaze, showed him that he was face to face with a naked soul, and with a most exalted consciousness. The man shaded his eyes a moment to shut out the glory and meaning of the gaze uplifted to his, and instinctively withdrew but a shadow of space from her proximity; by that quick impulse of honor and protection he proved his worthiness to receive this rare and beautiful tribute. But he could not wound her again with an unnecessary sternness. Leaning against the bole of the pepper tree, he rested his arm on the upper trunk, and asked the girl kindly, "Are you happy here?'' With a quick flash of womanly wit she understood his repressed tone and quiet withdrawal, but she was none the less gratified by every evidence of his kingly character. ' 'Yes, so happy. Not always have I been happy and blessed. There were some years," and the girl's eyes darkened, as she turned away her face. 'But since the Princess Salm-Salm came ' into my country, the sky is blue, and the birds sing all night as all day." The human heart beside her could not withhold sympathy; she drew upon the nectar of this draft, and with an untaught power MAXIMILIAN. 127 she filled her hearer's heart with the very spirit of Old Mexico. She wove, with an artless, yet matchless, skill, her own childhood into the traditions and legends of her people, now embroidering the narrative with green and red of royal splendor, and anon drawing in with a steady hand, great shadowy backgrounds of wrong and woe for her brilliant pictures. The bursting poetry of a hundred repressed ancestors, and the crowded sorrows of a thousand degraded kinsmen, swept the strings of her heart; and the music fascinated her listener into a forgetfulness of time, place and occasion. The first and last occasion in her whole life, tliis passionately loving yet sad soul uncovered wholly and unreservedly to another, the hidden springs of life and love and hope. It was the spoken revelation \^hich her dancing had revealed to him in motion that evening. Maximilian was far too intelligent not to appreciate this profound and beautiful revelation. And within him there arose and gathered strength, a companion emotion which for the moment carried him away on a lesislless wave of delight. He knew not why or even allowed his reason a moment's question; the occasion, the time, the whole atmosphere of - this Indianhaunted garden, thrilled him with a consciousness of his soul's nearness to these legends, and to these dusky, half-barbarous people. Surely there was no chance in his coming to this one-time fairy land! Unconsciously he was moving nearer the inspired speaker, and the pliant curve of her graceful body wooed him with a subtle influence. "One, two!" chimed out the cathedral clock, and then its quaint, old musical bells rang their jangle of sound. With a profound start and a shiver, as if a breath of cold air had chilled him, Maximilian drew himself up, and stood for a moment rigid and silent. Then, with a courtly gesture, he turned to Marina and said gently, 'The ni 128 IMPROVEMENT ERA. "Good-night for tim^ — we shall meet in eternity. I shall not fear, but rather love j'ou there. And you?" Maximilian took the tiny hand and bent above it with a princely courtesy. It lay in his palm as a tiny hostage of his own honor, and he brushed it lightly, but tenderly, with his bearded lips. Then, looking once more into her eyes, he answered, "Time only is our own. Eternity belongs to God." "I shall wait for God, eternity, and you." She turned, with a tiny wren'ch of her soft body, as if the effort cost her much, but without faltering. She moved swiftly to the stairway, and as he watched the bravery of her self-control, he felt it was worthy of her and of himself. She fled along the upper balcony, and when she was just above him where he stood, she turned and looked down into his up-turned eyes, and flung out her pleading hands to him. But her lips were speechless. "Find thee a worthy love," he said softly, but clearly, "and wed and be happy." She looked the reproach she would not speak, and then, once more leaning down over the low rails, she whispered with pure, passionate devotion, "Canst thou unbind the tie the gods have fastened? My ancestor showed thee unto me before I ever saw thy face. If thou art king or lord or god, I shall still be thine own, when Quetzalcoatl rules both earth and air. There may be others there, but I as well. Thou canst do naught for me, and this I know; not here, not now. But I, sometime, somewh( re, shall reach the heart of One who will help me save both thee and me! When I can cross the brazen sea, Then thou shalt owe thy life to me. My great, maternal ancestor hath prophesied this. Till then, goodnight. Dear lord, thou art so grand, so good, so true. Goodnight —good-night. And yet— and yet!" She was gone, and the tower clock began its jangling stroke upon the quarter-hour. With a profound sigh, Maximilian turned and went within. As he shut his lattice, a woman glided out from some sheltered shrubbery, and as she looked at the closed window she murmured softly,