Page:The rise and fall of the Emperor Maximilian.djvu/203

 and delicate mission, which was of rather a complex character, the French cabinet cast their eyes on General Castelnau, aide-de-camp to the emperor, who was then in attendance on his sovereign. His majesty's envoy was invested with full powers for every eventuality. This mission conferred on a mere general certain prerogatives superior to the authority of the commander-in-chief himself, and gave him a right of control over the acts of the latter, which right (although not avowed) was prejudicial to the dignity of a marshal of France. The French cabinet would certainly have been stopped in a course so contrary to military etiquette, if it had not taken advantage of Marshal Randon's temporary absence from Paris; but we cannot help thinking that the tried loyalty of the minister of war, who thoroughly understood the Mexican question —both the promises which had been made, and also the immense difficulties which our military commander had had to grapple with—would not have lent his aid to the almost forcible subversion of Maximilian.

General Castelnau set sail on September 17.

At this time the Mexican horizon was getting darker and darker. The rebels were forcing their way to the very heart of the empire. The French alone made any head against the progress of the insurrection. The battalions of cazadores were rapidly melting away, and the Austrians themselves gave unequivocal signs of a feeling of discouragement which can easily be accounted for, when we consider that Maximilian was compelled against his will to neglect his countrymen. This apparent unconcern on the part of the sovereign had a bad effect on the Austrian legion; the wounded men of this corps had not yet received any alleviation of their lot from the Mexican government. At the end of September, 1866, the officers of this force found