Page:The rise and fall of the Emperor Maximilian.djvu/195

 We get nothing but vagrants, or men who are well known as enemies, whom we are obliged to keep in confinement. These are the elements on which the imperial commissary depends for preserving this city for the Emperor Maximilian. Everyone asks whether it is madness, or some project which will not bear disclosure. If no reinforcements arrive here, it will be a crime to leave a handful of Frenchmen in the place, who will fall as victims to their devotion. There is no mistake as to this, the liberals are fully expected here, and fêtes are getting ready to receive them.

The following deposition of the Mexican general commanding at Guadalajara, the second city of the empire, is not less curious. This high functionary, placed at the head of the fourth military division, which was one of the most important, wrote to the emperor to complain of a want of co-operation on the part of, the civil authorities:—

Head-Quarters, Guadalajara. The revolutionary movements, which are to be observed in various parts of this military division, the indefatigable activity of the agents of disorder, and the apathy and indolence which the greater part of the political authorities in these departments manifest in the execution of their duties, render my task more and more difficult every day.

I shall always insist on the obligation incumbent on the civil authorities to assist our military operations in every possible way. My work is condemned beforehand to failure, if I am to continue as now to contend with the unwillingness of certain prefects.

I think that it is indispensable to dismiss all the authorities except those of Zacatecas and Colima, and they should be replaced by men who are loyal and possessed of bright ideas—partisans both of the intervention and the empire.

Such were the fruits of the new policy! When the establishment of French courts-martial was asked for, the marshal replied officially, that he could not concur