"Mexicans," he began again, now in the vibrant tone of an overpowering emotion. "I pray to fulfil the mission for which God has placed me here. There are six millions of you, a sober and industrious race. Cortez found you so, and you astounded him with your civilization. But the conditions that followed have enslaved you. Enslaved, I repeat, for you are bound by debt. Your hacendado master contrives that you cannot pay even his usurious interest. The food you eat, you must buy from him, at his prices, of the quality he prescribes. And if your debt be not sufficient, that is, if there seems a chance of your paying it off, then you must increase it to obtain your daily bread. Your very children are slaves at birth, since with their first birth they inherit your chains. And if you or your children run away, you or they may be brought back as runaway slaves. It is thus that I find you, Mexicans. And I find you awaiting a liberator, waiting vainly through the centuries. But now, at last, the reward of your suffering and your faith has come. In a word, which shall be formally recorded in the Journal Official, We this day decree----" "I knew it," exclaimed Jacqueline, "he always coins his inspirations." "----We this day decree your debts extinguished, and each and every peon in all our beautiful country--a free man!" "Yet with not," said Jacqueline, "a foot of land to be free on. But you know, messieurs, that Utopia is an asylum for the blind." "It's a spider on his ceiling," muttered Colonel Dupin, touching his own head significantly. The emancipator's face was beatific. He heard the peons acclaim him, as gradually they began to understand that there was to be no more unhappiness. But it was curious how far, far away the sweet music sounded, even when some belated "Viva el Senor Emperador!" cracked in ludicrous falsetto. For the poet-prince these human chords might have been the strings of a harp, softly touched. And as far away as posterity. Jacqueline fell to clapping her hands noiselessly. "Oh, la-la," she cried, "if we are not to have an epic flight from Monsieur Eloin!" It was true in a degree. Five minutes of stupendous history making had just elapsed, and some graceful tribute was due. The royal favorite had foreseen the need, and he was prepared; but whether by borrowing or originating, it is impossible to say. "'Vous l'avez releve; votre main souveraine L'a rendu d'un seul coup a la famille humaine. De ce premier bienfait, Sire, soyez content: L'Indien fera de vous MAXIMILIEN LE GRAND!'" "Parbleu, why not?" demanded Jacqueline. "If only he were as great as his decrees, poor man!"