Page:The rise and fall of the Emperor Maximilian.djvu/193

 off the yoke of the French intervention, and to free themselves from French military administration. Disgust and weariness took possession of our officers, who asked to be recalled in all the provinces in which the cazadores were acting. At Queretaro, at Mazatlan,— in fact everywhere—the same complaints were raised, accompanied with tenders of resignation. The two documents which follow, which have been selected out of many others written in the same spirit, will relate the existing state of things more clearly than a mere recital:—

September 15, 1866. Monsieur le Maréchal,—When you did me the honour of placing me in command of the. . battalion of cazadores, I thought I might be able to undertake this difficult, but not impossible, task. Certain advantages and guarantees were promised to the military men of these battalions, and it was likely that a large number of French soldiers would come forward on the faith of these promises. The system of voluntary enlistment was an element of strength; confidence was felt in the certainty that the cazadores would be treated like the foreign legion, with which they were connected; that they would be dependent on the commander and administration of the expeditionary corps, receiving their pay from French paymasters, their food from the French commissariat, and their stores from the state magazines and from the camp; finally, that they would be cared for in the hospitals of the expeditionary corps. This confidence was increased by the certainty of remaining for at least eighteen months along with the French army, the aid of which was to facilitate and further the organisation, the instruction, and the solidity of these battalions.

At the present time, the advantages and the guarantees are daily disappearing. The system of enlistment is completely changing; the paymasters have already received orders to pay no longer the battalions of cazadores. The French administration now does little for us; nothing is left us but a