Page:The rise and fall of the Emperor Maximilian.djvu/185

 compelled to send for fresh reinforcements. Maximilian, it must be confessed, had found out that the policy of the Tuileries spoke two languages; that the ministers contradicted the assurances of his ally, who had never ceased to promise his material assistance and moral support; and that at last the Emperor Napoleon had placed him in a cruel dilemma, by forcing him to sign the convention of July 30.

The Emperor of Mexico also had profited by these lessons of a political conduct now much in request in Europe. Thus he no longer hesitated in sowing the seeds of discord in the French camp, appealing to certain feelings of devotion in some, who, in consequence of their complete ignorance of the instructions sent by the cabinet of the Tuileries, deplored the severity of the measure of evacuation, although the latter had been modified by our head-quarters authorities. Forgetting that discipline is the first law of an army, Maximilian sought to create for himself partizans in our ranks, in the hope that their counteraction might find an echo in France which would be powerful enough to retard the movement of evacuation.

The constant innovations which were experienced by Maximilian's military household had often revealed a real want of experience on the part of the sovereign as well as a complete forgetfulness of the etiquette of government. Thus, the following letter from the imperial cabinet, was intended to compel a marshal of France, as well as all the ministers of the crown, to correspond with the emperor through the medium of a captain of the expeditionary corps.

Military Cabinet of the Emperor, Mexico, March 7, 1866. Monsieur le Maréchal,—I have the honour of informing