Page:The rise and fall of the Emperor Maximilian.djvu/119

 This service to the Mexican crown was not well received at Paris, and Marshal Bazaine did not meet with the approval of the cabinet of the Tuileries. He received instructions not to consent to any further advance to the Mexican treasury. The downfall of the empire was no longer a matter of doubt—its last agony was commencing.

The marshal, however, could not turn a deaf ear to the moving supplications of the Mexican government; for its last appeal was truly heartrending. M. de Lacunza, the president of the council, a man devoted to his country, and one of her most enlightened citizens, begged for the help of France, in a letter too appealing to be passed over without notice. This document, full of revelations as to the policy of the French cabinet, marks the epoch of one of the downward steps of the unhappy empire, which was called into being by our hand, and now tottered over the precipice dug away for it by our intervention.

To His Excellency Marshal Bazaine.

Mexico, April 28, 1866.

Most esteemed Marshal,—I had the honour yesterday of paying you a visit, and you are aware that its principal object was to point out to your excellency the indubitable necessity of your continuing the advances to the Mexican treasury which have been made these last few months. I now desire to reiterate to your excellency my most urgent entreaties on this subject, and also to make known to you the circumstances in which we now stand, and the result we must look forward to, if we do not at once get out of the difficulty.

As it is but a short time since I undertook the direction of foreign affairs, I can speak of things as they really are, as I am in no way responsible for them; these things are no novelty to your excellency, who knows them well; but a free and candid