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PLUNDER FROM THE PALACE OF CHAPULTEPEC.

cay, and the palace which Hernando Cortez built and occupied, now a national pawnbroker's shop.

Then we went into the chapel which Maximilian caused to be arranged for the coronation which never took place, and saw the cushioned seats on which he and his Empress were to sit while the services progressed. Then into another and smaller chapel, and from thence, to the great store-rooms in which is piled like so much useless rubbish, the costly trappings which adorned the persons of the actors and the stage on which they strutted their little hour, in the last grand imperial farce of our time—of all time I trust!

In one room there are numerous paintings, and wooden, marble, and gilded plaster of Paris decorations from the palace of Chapultepec. There are two full length portraits of Maximilian in his imperial robes, one painted in Munich, the other in Mexico. In each, the artist has given an almost feminine beauty to his forehead and eyes, and the blonde English whiskers are the same; but the coarse, weak mouth defied all efforts at toning down and softening, and both artists wisely represented it in all its deformity.

MAXIMILIAN

There is also a full length portrait of Carlotta, which so closely resembles the fancy pictures of Eugenie, current some twenty years ago, as to lead to the suspicion of a common model having served for each.