Page:The rise and fall of the Emperor Maximilian.djvu/207

 pointed out were made as far as the Terres Chaudes. On the Sunday, the commander-in-chief went to the palace to meet the emperor. The grand chamberlain, who received the marshal, begged him from Maximilian to defer the intended interview until the next day, and to wait for fresh notice from his majesty. The sovereign's fickleness of mind was such that he did not yet dare to take any decisive course, and the important interests which he had declared to be so urgent seemed no longer in question.

On his return to Mexico, the marshal heard of the landing of General Castelnau; he also received the following urgent instructions, dated at Paris, September 12:—'As matters get worse and worse every day, and as the capture of Tampico has disappointed us of the customs' receipts, Napoleon III. has decided to recall the troops en masse, and to push forward their complete evacuation in the approaching spring.' It was, however, thought necessary to retain the regiments which were just upon the point of sailing, and it was added:—Protect our flag against every insult, and assert, if necessary, the power and the preponderance of our arms.

An order worded in this way and communicated to our head-quarters could only have in view the possibility of insults on the part of the Juarists, or of the United States. Now, how can we understand this, when at this very time the French government, as the two following despatches prove, had already asked leave of the American cabinet to delay the evacuation of our army, and had been sounding through our diplomatists, both in Washington and Paris, as to the restoration of a Mexican republic?