Page:The rise and fall of the Emperor Maximilian.djvu/151

 I now desire to invest you with absolute authority for the organisation of the Franco-Mexican battalions, and the reorganisation of the national army.

. . . All orders given by you, and sent to the minister for war, should express, 'by order of the emperor.'

Such is the plan that I have definitively adopted, since you have favoured me with your advice; it is conceived solely with a view of concentrating in your hands an organisation which you alone and your valuable officers can carry out properly.

To any impartial mind, which has entered thoroughly into the cordial feelings which had hitherto prevailed between the Mexican court and the marshal—to anyone who, without prejudice, has appreciated the efforts made at our head-quarters for the consolidation of the imperial throne, by aid of the limited means and powers the French government had provided them with—in short, after the perusal of the conciliatory correspondence of which we have given several extracts, it would seem strange that the Emperor and Empress of Mexico could secretly complain to the Emperor Napoleon of the general-in-chief, and demand his recall. This is, however, what had been taking place for several months past unknown to the marshal, who only learnt the truth some time afterwards from Paris, at the time of the Empress Charlotte's journey to Europe. Everything should have dictated candour: it would have become a sovereign to state his grievances openly and straightforwardly, if he thought them well founded. It was all the more a duty for the crown, because at another time it had manifested to the general-in-chief, on his promotion to be a marshal, sentiments which no little contributed to keeping him on Mexican soil, where he believed himself doing good service to the monarchy; sentiments, too, which he knew that he had deserved.