Page:The rise and fall of the Emperor Maximilian.djvu/181

Rh to the Mexican troops, would now remain powerless against the revolt of the country, irritated as it was at the selection of the new ministers, which destroyed all hope of any liberal revival. After this coup d'état the Mexican government, in despair, gave its adhesion to the new convention extorted by France. By this contract, which was to come into execution on December 1, 1866, and was substituted for the treaty of Miramar, half the proceeds from the custom-houses of Vera Cruz and Tampico was assigned for the payment of the French debt. In signing this, Maximilian entered into a fatal engagement, which he knew well he could not keep without soon lapsing into a national bankruptcy. It would have been more dignified in the emperor if he had at once laid down his crown and retired from the scene, leaving to the French government all the enormous responsibility of the situation. But this sovereign did not know how to resist the seductions of royalty. Perhaps he still hoped for the success of the mission of the empress to Paris and Rome. This is his only excuse.

During this time, the French army, in conformity with the plan of evacuation to be carried out as settled at the successive periods, was concentrating its forces. To facilitate its retrograde movement, the marshal remained on horseback on the northern roads, ready to give his assistance to either of his two corps d'armée which might be menaced. On the left Castagny's division leaving gradually the immense tracts of La Sonora, and the plains of Zacatecas and of Durango, was falling back upon the town of Leon, its new headquarters. On the right, General Douay was quitting all the positions of the north close to the American frontier, and his troops, having been concentrated on Saltillo, were pitching their tents under the walls of