empire; their defeats, their triumphs, their "deals," their blunders,
were now matters of history: but for all that, they were of common flesh
and blood, and the strange incidents of a strangely picturesque episode
in the existence of this continent seemed natural enough if one only
knew the men.

Singly or in groups, the procession slowly passed, each one pausing for
a brief space in the flood of light cast by an awakening memory. Many
wore uniforms--French, Austrian, Belgian, Mexican. Some were dancing
gaily, laughing and flirting as they went by. Others looked careworn and
absorbed by the preoccupations of a distracted state, and by the growing
consciousness of the thankless responsibility which the incapacity of
their rulers at home, and the unprincipled deceit of a few official
impostors, had placed upon them. But all, whether thoughtful or
careless, whether clairvoyant or blind, whether calmly yielding to fate
or attempting to breast the storm, were driven along by the irresistible
current of events, each drifting toward the darkness of an inevitable
doom which, we now know, was inexorably awaiting him as he passed from
the ray of light into the gloom in his "dance to death."



PART I.

THE TRIPLE ALLIANCE

1861-62

MAXIMILIAN IN MEXICO