“At three o’clock this morning our troops captured the convent La Cruz. The garrison were taken prisoners, part of the enemy’s troops having retreated to Cerro de la Campaña in great disorder and under fire from our artillery. About eight this morning Maximilian with his generals Mejia and Castillo surrendered at discretion. I beg to offer the President my congratulations on this great triumph of the national arms. Mariano Escobedo.” A mighty triumph, indeed, for fifty thousand men to conquer a garrison of five thousand, exhausted by famine and disease, and that only by an act of treachery! As to the manner and conditions of Lopez’ betrayal, accounts vary. He is said to have been promised as much as ten thousand piastres by Escobedo. His accomplice in the plot was a certain Anton Jablonski, but the whole affair was managed with such adroitness that not one of the Emperor’s friends had a suspicion of it. Lopez afterward published an emphatic denial of the accusation, which was supported by Escobedo and in which he had the audacity to appeal to Prince Salm for confirmation. The latter’s reply, written during his imprisonment and after Maximilian’s death, leaves nothing to be desired in the way of plain speaking. It runs in part as follows: “To Miguel Lopez, former imperial Mexican colonel and author of the article entitled ‘The Capture of Querétaro’: “In this defence, addressed by you to your countrymen, to France, and to the world at large, you appeal to me as witness that Querétaro did not fall by treachery and maintain that your statements bear the stamp of perfect truth. Although I, as you know, have been a prisoner of war for five months, my sense of justice will no longer allow me to be silent, for I can prove their utter falsity. You publicly declare that Querétaro was captured by force of arms; that the Emperor commissioned you on the night of the fourteenth of May to negotiate with the enemy, his troops being completely demoralized and all hope of escape abandoned; and you dare any who maintain that Querétaro fell by treachery to appear and dispute your assertions. I accept your challenge, therefore, and before the world proclaim you a traitor with the blood of your former sovereign and benefactor on your hands. It is not true that the Emperor commissioned you to negotiate with the enemy. I had the honor of conversing with His Majesty that night, after you had left him, and he had not then or at any other time the faintest idea of treating with the republicans. If his army was small, it was still brave and loyal enough to have fought a way out through the enemy’s lines for its beloved sovereign, to whose character, as you well know, such a course as you describe would have been utterly foreign. This being the case, permit me, Senor Lopez, to ask you a few questions before the world.