Page:The rise and fall of the Emperor Maximilian.djvu/100

84 which had been rendered necessary by the creation of great military commands, had deeply wounded the spirit of routine in the large landed proprietors, and had interfered with the habits of the clerical party, by displacing their centres of action. A portion of the malcontent hacenderos, without venturing to declare openly against the empire, afforded help to the rebellion, and rendered hospitality and paid money to the guerillas; they remounted their cavalry, and took care of their wounded or tired horses, which were again claimed by the guerillas when they were fit for service.

In the course of this year (1865), the French fleet and army had exerted themselves so vigorously from the Gulf to the Pacific that a force of less than 29,000 combatants had managed to visit and to encourage every port and all the state capitals except those of Guerrero and Chiapas. We have already proved that this scattering of the military forces, although it was advised by Maximilian and the empress, was a serious imprudence, and was likely to create dangers for the future. It would have been much better to have made gradual extensions of a peaceful rule as resources allowed, encouraging every interest, and enlarging bit by bit a solidly constructed circle, than, as was the case, to spread out at the first onset over vast solitudes thinly sprinkled with small centres of population; for it might easily be foreseen that ere long it would be necessary to abandon them, giving rise to all the horrors of war which always accompany a retreat. Nevertheless, our columns, crossing the prairies, had invaded the capital of Chihuahua, the last stronghold of the president of the republic, and the news was spread in the empire that Juarez had deserted the Mexican soil. The fugitive had fled from Chihuahua