Her insanity has never assumed a violent or unmanageable character, and her sweet and gentle nature has endeared the unhappy lady to all her attendants.
Her mania lay chiefly in a belief that her husband Maximilian was alive, and she spent her days in hourly expectation of his arrival. She appeared to have forgotten all the troubles which had unbalanced her mind, and to be unaware of the cruel death which he had suffered.
The Palace of Larken, where the ex-Empress passed her life, is beautifully situated in a large park. The gentle Princess would wander over the estate, interesting herself in all the various phases of a country life.
It is said that her one pleasure was her dairy. The King of the Belgians, who endeavored to gratify every wish that she expressed, sent a very fine herd of cows to Larken, and the ex-Empress established a model dairy farm, from which she derived much pleasure.
Another traveller has reached the summit of the Enchanted Mesa.
We told you how Professor Libbey, of Princeton, had successfully scaled the bluff, and had reported that there were no traces of human life on the Mesa-top.
It seems that the scientists were not altogether satisfied with this decision.
It has been the experience of all men who have had any dealings with the red Indians that, no matter how vague and strange their legends may be, they are always founded on fact. Every tribe has an abundance of legends, and it has been found that there is always a leaven of truth in them.
The story of the Enchanted Mesa,—how the roadway which led up to the village on its summit was destroyed in a great storm, and how the people left on the top were starved to death because they could not get down,—exists in one form or another among all the tribes in the vicinity, and therefore several men who are versed in Indian lore have refused to believe Professor Libbey's assertion that there were no traces of life to be found on the Mesa's top.