Page:The rise and fall of the Emperor Maximilian.djvu/168

 Besides, the emperor had not yet made up his mind as to the fresh convention, and he preferred to keep his own counsel. On July 20, on arriving at San Luis, the marshal sent a summary of the state of the country to the palace of Mexico, and announced 'that the Belgian legion could no longer be left alone in the town of Monterey, for it was not to be depended upon. The want of discipline had assumed such proportions that General Douay had not ventured to execute the orders which he had received to disband his forces, fearing to provoke an armed revolt.' In concluding this letter, the marshal, obeying the formal instructions of the Emperor Napoleon, said to Maximilian, 'I cannot undertake anything before I know the decision of his majesty as to the note he has just received from France, the latter portion of which directs the immediate concentration of the French troops, in case the emperor should not acquiesce in the substitution of a fresh convention instead of that of Miramar.'

Fifteen days after a courier arrived from Maximilian at Peotillos, where our head-quarters were fixed, and handed to the marshal a letter more fatal even than the unhappy decree of October 3, which must have been extorted from the weakness of the sovereign by a minister infatuated by fear at the report of the insurrection which was now reaching the very heart of the empire. It must, besides, be stated, that if urgent persuasion had not been used, the emperor would not even have consulted the commander-in-chief, and would have immediately placed the whole empire in a state of siege.

Mexico, August 7, 1866. My dear Marshal,—By two decrees dated August 1, I have declared a state of siege in the departments which appeared to me the most disturbed at this moment. These are, on one side,