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Updated: June 10, 2025
On the morning of this movement the Mexican General Blanco was ordered to construct batteries, and General Mejia to take position on the Pelon Cuauhtitlan to command the expected movements of the American army.
When Mejia heard that a British force was being raised for service against the Spaniards, he was greatly delighted, and offered me on the spot a command in his "army," or, alternatively, the position of his principal aide-de-camp. I preferred the latter. "You have decided wisely, and I thank you, señor coronel.
On June 15 tidings of the Empress Charlotte's death reached Queretaro. General Mejia, who was the first to hear it, broke it to Maximilian. While it stirred the very depths of his nature, this false information proved a help to him in his last moments. The bitterness of leaving his unfortunate wife in her helpless condition was thus spared him. "One tie less to bind me to the world," he said.
"Where is the Tio?" "There!" "That! I thought the Tio was a river." "So it is, and a big one in the rainy season, as you may have an opportunity of seeing. I wish we could hear something of Mejia. But there is nobody of whom we can inquire. The country is deserted; the herdsmen have all gone south, to keep out of the way of guerillas and brigands, all of whom look on cattle as common property."
Mejia being very much cast down by the sad spectacle presented by his poor, distracted wife, Maximilian again pressed his hands, saying: "God will not abandon our suffering survivors. For those who die unjustly, things will be set right in another world." The drums began to beat. The end was near. Maximilian stepped forward, mounted on a stone, and addressed the spectators.
Estero himself, though like Mejia, a splendid patriotic leader, was no general, and I felt sure that unless we caught Griscelli asleep we should find San Felipe an uncommonly hard nut to crack. I need hardly say, however, that I kept this opinion religiously to myself.
The emperor, with Generals Mejia, Castillo, Avellano, and Prince Salm-Salm, retired to a little hill which commanded the city. They had no artillery, no means of defending their position. They stood on the bare rock where they had taken refuge, like shipwrecked sailors waiting for the fatal rising of the tide.
General Mejia, feeling keenly the moral support we were giving the Liberals, and hard pressed by the harassing attacks of Cortinas and Canales, had abandoned the place, and Caravajal, because of his credentials from our side, was in command, much to the dissatisfaction of both those chiefs whose differences it was intended he should reconcile.
Nevertheless, I fear that with one thousand horse and two thousand foot, and without artillery, you will not find it easy to capture a strong place, armed with ten guns and held by twenty-five hundred men, of whom half are regulars. If I were you I would let San Felipe alone." Mejia frowned. My advice was evidently not to his liking.
"That was very good of you; and Señor Fortescue and I owe you a thousand thanks. But where are General Mejia and the army?" "Near the old place. In a better position, though. But you must not go there neither of you." "We must not go there! But why?" "Because if you do the general will hang you." "Hang us! Hang Señor Fortescue, who has come all the way from England to help us!
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