Page:The rise and fall of the Emperor Maximilian.djvu/159

 disposal of the French commandants; and it may be easily understood what our volunteers, conscious of their own dignity, must have felt when they elbowed in their ranks comrades who had just exchanged the convict's chain for the musket. Yet our officers were not disheartened.

Depending upon the imperial orders which had directed the recruitment in the states of Mexico, Queretaro, and San Luis, they endeavoured to arouse the apathy of the political prefects, and, in some cases, to baffle their hostility. They personally visited all the haciendas; they appealed to the patriotism as well as to the self-interest of the great landed proprietors, whose safety could only be ensured by the legal enlistment of the labourers living on their property, or by the arrival of volunteers to serve under the flag. The whole population, if the imperial commissioners did not betray the crown, ought to furnish its contingent to the recruitment. And never had sacrifices of this sort been more called forth by pressing emergencies. General Mejia found in his front Escobedo and Cortina threatening to annihilate his division, the best disciplined amongst the Mexican troops, and composed of veteran bands well seasoned to the hardships of the sierras. Yet Maximilian did not lose heart. It should also be told that he felt his powers doubled by the energy of his devoted wife, who directed affairs at Mexico whilst he was traversing the country. From Cuernavaca, where he then was, and where the news of a great disaster had just come upon him without prostrating him, he demanded without delay from our head-quarters the means of retrieving the misfortune.

Cuernavaca, June 24, 1866. My dear Marshal,—I have learnt with much pleasure from your last letter that the organisation of the nine battalions of