Page:The rise and fall of the Emperor Maximilian.djvu/123

 government the task of concluding it at the cost of immense sacrifices?

This is the plain question which is submitted to your excellency by your sincere friend and most affectionate

Two days after the receipt of this document, which well attests what Maximilian must have suffered, there was a council held at the imperial palace. The commander-in-chief, M. Dano, and M. de Maintenant (the inspector of finances delegated to Mexico by France) had been summoned to it. The emperor was surrounded by all his ministers. The scene was full of sadness. M. Lacunza demanded boldly a monthly advance of five millions from our treasury. The representatives of our government, in virtue of the formal instructions they had received, had urged that his demand should not be entertained. Then the emperor, breaking into the discussion, cried out:—

'Doing away with all detail, the question may be summed up in very few words—it is either the bankruptcy of the empire or the hope of saving it. If the personages who represent France at this meeting are not willing to take the responsibility of spending a few millions, they must take that of having allowed bankruptcy to intervene, which assuredly would not be the desire of the Emperor Napoleon, who has always shown himself to be the friend of the Mexican empire.'

The marshal conceded one-half of the advance requested by Maximilian. We have seen before what sort of reception awaited this step taken by the commander-in-chief. How was it that the Emperor Napoleon's letters to Maximilian, constantly containing direct promises of effective co-operation, were always preceded or followed by orders from the ministers forbidding the French agents to make any financial