Page:The rise and fall of the Emperor Maximilian.djvu/17

 THE RISE AND FALL

INTRODUCTION.

HE French expedition to Mexico belongs henceforth to history. The second emperor of that country was shot to death at Queretaro in 1867, as the first had been at Padilla in 1824. Yet both loved their adopted country, and Maximilian brought with him a high-minded conception of his mission.

Just at the time when a solemn debate is resounding within the walls of our Palais Législatif, we may perhaps be permitted to investigate the various causes which have combined in the ruin of this distant enterprise. The present time is all the more favourable to this investigation since the several acts of the Mexican drama—so fertile in catastrophes—date, so to speak, only from yesterday. Besides, it seems to us only just to apportion out and ascribe to each of the actors in this sanguinary tragedy the share of responsibility which duly falls upon him, both in the conception and management of the undertaking, and also in the failure of this unfortunate campaign. Let us then pursue this enquiry, and let us try to do it as impartially as possible.