Page:The rise and fall of the Emperor Maximilian.djvu/148

 themselves bound because they were implicated in any particular course of action. For the latter were accustomed, at each new revolutionary movement, to disappear so as to let the storm pass over, and then to rally round the victorious side until the propitious moment came for a fresh revolt. This contempt for all political faith formed Juarez's power; he was always certain of being well received by his countrymen, even when they had just taken an oath of allegiance to the empire. Thus, as will be recollected, our troops had rushed to the very extremity of the empire, to the city of Chihuahua, to expel from it the president of the republic. After some months' occupation, which had certainly restored calm to these distant districts, the French forces were compelled to deliver up this state capital to its own garrison, and left it in order to seek fresh dangers. Chihuahua immediately opened its gates to Juarez, who had returned from Paso del Norte at a time when Maximilian thought that his enemy had crossed the American frontier without intention of returning. The president's presence on Mexican territory deeply affected Maximilian, who imagined that the resistance of the malcontents was due to this cause only. In spite of the want of troops which was felt in the central states, the court of Mexico itself resolved on a second expedition against Chihuahua, and it signified its desire to the commander-in-chief in terms which clearly prove that the emperor reigned and governed in complete independence.

Chapultepec, May 28, 1866. My dear Marshal,—Both the home and foreign news that I receive prove to me the imperious necessity of expelling Juarez from Chihuahua, and of occupying this town definitively so as to deprive the United States of their only plausible pretext