The figures of the beautiful Carlota, daughter of Leopold of Belgium and of Maximilian, the younger brother of Franz Joseph, need not be embellished in order to lend themselves to tragedy. The circumstances of their lives, their astonishing innocence, their intense desire to serve, the duplicity of those on whom they depended--Napoleon III and the Vatican--and the fiery determination of the Mexican, Juarez, to drive the European aristocrats from his land conspired to make this handsome couple martyrs to a net of intrigue. Maximilian was to pay with his life and the beautiful Carlota with her sanity. A naturally gripping story, it is treated here by the author of Song For a Lute and the Flight of the Wildling with compassion tempered by historical perspective.