Page:The Fall of Maximilan's Empire.djvu/95

Rh learning that on the same day that they had been compelled to leave their station, the tug "Yucca" had left Pensacola, to call at Vera Cruz, with provisions for them. The delay in sending that supply vessel seemed strange and was most unfortunate; but there was no help for it then, and all that could be done was to coal and provision ship and execute a few repairs with all possible despatch, so as to return and take further part in the interesting scenes of the last days of the Empire.

The part that the "Tacony" had already taken in the stirring events just related became the subject of much criticism, both adverse and favorable, and Captain Roe had to run the gauntlet of much censure from various quarters. It seemed, indeed, to be a high-handed proceeding to remove by force a pretender to the throne of a country, however much embroiled at home and abroad. That country, after a disheartening and desperately protracted struggle, had at last begun to triumph over all its enemies, including that most intolerable of all political evils, foreign armed intervention, and to have reached a crisis when, if left alone, it might be expected to restore tranquillity and reorganize itself upon permanent foundations. A notorious agitator, backed by adventurers who would ruthlessly sacrifice country to party, and perhaps both to money or gain, was about to undo in a day what had been accomplished by years of bloodshed and suffering.