Page:The rise and fall of the Emperor Maximilian.djvu/189

 If your majesty had deigned to receive me when, on the eve of leaving the city of Mexico, I solicited the honour of taking leave of you, I should have explained my intentions, which simply were—to see with my own eyes the effect produced in the north by the events at Matamoros; to assure myself of the correctness of the reports which had been sent me as to the little confidence that could be placed in the principal officials, and as to the generally hostile feeling of the population of those districts.

After having ascertained all these facts, and relying on the reports of Generals Douay and Jeanningros, I saw the impossibility (at least for a time) of preserving these advanced points, which could be nothing else but a source of danger and continual expense. I formed the resolution, and stated it to your majesty, of directing the evacuation of Monterey and Saltillo, so as to establish in their rear a strong line, easy to defend and separated from the former places by a complete desert, where neither allies nor enemies could reckon on any resources. My opinion was, and still is, that it is preferable for you to develope your influence in the interior, by concentrating your powers on a limited extent of territory, instead of exhausting your energies at the extremities of the empire which are subject to the evil influence of the American frontier.

Your majesty calls forth these explanations; and I give them to you in good faith.

The absolute state of isolation in which the former ministers of the crown left General Mejia at Matamoros was the real cause of the capitulation of that place; the painful position in which General Montenegro has been placed at Acapulco—and this in spite of my numberless demands, and in spite of promises made but never kept—will lead, I doubt not, either to the early defection of this body of troops, which has really given proofs of self-denial and devotion, or to the capitulation of the place.

In the face of all this sluggishness, and flagrant unwillingness of action (which I have no fear in again denouncing to your majesty), whilst I will devotedly and conscientiously fulfil towards the emperor of Mexico the mission which has been confided to me by my sovereign, my first business must