with its advance-guard, rear-guard, and immediate escort was in motion at an early hour, the trumpets and kettle-drums of the different corps filling the air with the harsh, discordant music, even before day-break, and making sleep at our quarters impossible.
Mr. Seward's party were to have been off for Paso del Macho, at 5 o'clock a. m., to meet the special train formerly kept for the special use of Maximilian and his family, and still known as "the Imperial Train," sent up from Vera Cruz, for the occasion; but owing to bungling mismanagement they were delayed until after 7 o'clock, and, of course, compelled to crowd on all speed to make up for lost time. The long train of the conducta was in motion, taking up all the highway, but when word was sent that Mr. Seward was at the rear, it halted and made room for the coach to pass, and the officers and men of each corps presented arms as he went by.
I went down to Vera Cruz ahead of the conducta, passing it on the way, and so had an opportunity of seeing it arrive at its destination and witnessing the final scene. The dangerous Pass of the Chiquihuite having been made successfully, on arriving at Paso del Macho—the western end of the Vera Cruz section of the railway—the cavalry and artillery were dismissed, and the specie transferred to the cars—a special having been provided—and thence went on to Vera Cruz under escort of the infantry only. The two million seven hundred thousand dollars in specie was all packed in coarse sacks of maguey fibre, each sack holding three thousand dollars, and it required twelve closed box, freight-cars to transport it.
When the special train arrived at Vera Cruz the cars
