Page:The rise and fall of the Emperor Maximilian.djvu/139

Rh Belgian and Austrian commissioners demanded for their soldiers an independent discipline, and the right of command for that one of the chiefs who had the largest effective force under his orders. In a word, the effect was to get rid of all French superintendence, and thus to expose them, as events proved, to serious disasters. The end of the matter was that the Austrian general, de Thûn, who, disgusted with having to deal with the Mexican army, had resigned his powers, was called to command these foreign troops, and Maximilian again requested our head-quarters to assume the chief direction of his army. How much time was lost in fruitless bungling!