“While Herzfeld was seemingly studying the despatches more closely, I retired to my apartment, but was soon summoned again by His Majesty. As I entered, he turned to me, tears streaming down his cheeks, and asked, “‘Do you know who Dr. Riedel is in Vienna?’ “At the mention of this name, the truth flashed upon me. Herzfeld had disclosed the news, and much as I longed to spare the Emperor, I could not lie to him. “‘He is the director of the Insane Asylum,’ I was reluctantly forced to reply.” These melancholy tidings only served to hasten the impending crisis. Already disheartened by repeated trials and disappointments, Maximilian now saw his last hope vanish, and felt himself deserted by Providence. Indifferent to all that passed, his only thought seemed to be of hastening to his beloved wife and leaving behind him this ill-fated country to which she had been so cruelly sacrificed. Chapter XI Events in Mexico after the Departure of the Empress Two persons have already been mentioned who played an important part in the events of this history, Herzfeld, the Minister of State, and Father Fischer. Herzfeld was a German and devoted to the Emperor. Unfortunately Maximilian sent him back to Europe soon after this, thereby depriving himself of a valuable friend and adviser in his days of misfortune. Father Fischer was born in Würtemberg, of Protestant parents, and seems to have had rather an adventurous career. He came to America with a band of emigrants who settled in Texas, and went from there to California as a gold miner. Becoming a convert to Catholicism, he entered the Jesuit order, from which he was subsequently dismissed, for good and sufficient reasons, no doubt. The description of this man given by the Emperor’s physician is far from flattering, but it is manifestly unjust to lay his faults at the door of the much-abused order of Jesuits. A whole society cannot be held responsible for the deeds or misdeeds of a single member, still less when that member has ceased to be one. At all events Father Fischer belonged to the Emperor’s closest circle of friends, another member of which was Professor Bilimek, whose acquaintance we shall make in the next chapter. This man was a scholar, absorbed in the study of the flowers and butterflies of Mexico and troubling himself little with political affairs.