Page:The rise and fall of the Emperor Maximilian.djvu/160

144 cazadores and of the national army is going on without interruption, and I have to thank you cordially for it. The news of the almost complete destruction of Mejia's division has much surprised me, and has grievously affected me. On these brave troops I founded a great part of my hopes for the future.

To turn in another direction, the re-opening of the communications between Matamoros and Monterey is very necessary to relieve our finances; but I confide in the measures which your great experience will suggest, and I beg of you to send me a plan of campaign which should be followed to retrieve the misfortune which has just fallen upon us, and to restore order in the insubordinate departments.

A second and still more painful blow fell on the court of Mexico at the end of June. This was the Emperor Napoleon's reply to the embassy of M. Almonte, on which both Maximilian and the Empress Charlotte had built such fond hopes. Napoleon III. notified to his ally certain conditions which were harsher than any of those which had been hitherto drawn up. Although the form of the imperial message, which contained a statement of certain well-founded grievances, might be wounding to Maximilian's self-esteem, the resolutions it contained passed the sentence of death on the Mexican monarchy. Mr. Seward had triumphed!

Paris, May 31, 1866. General Almonte has handed to the emperor the letters of his majesty the Emperor Maximilian, and has made the communications with which he was charged for the French government. His majesty regrets to be compelled to express the surprise which these communications have caused him. For more than a year the instructions sent to the French agents in Mexico, and inspired by the feeling of the reciprocal duties and obligations which we have contracted, have aimed to bring before the Mexican government certain recommendations dictated by the interest of the two countries no less than by the sincere friendship which his majesty feels for the Emperor Maximilian.