Page:The rise and fall of the Emperor Maximilian.djvu/253

 The undersigned also engage to exert all their influence that an advance should be made to the princess Dona Josefa and to the young prince Don Salvador de Iturbide, on the pension which is due to them.

Finally, in accordance with the wish expressed by his majesty the Emperor Maximilian, M. Carlos Sanchez Navarro shall be charged with the payments of the debts of the civil list, and the settlement of the accounts of the office of the great seal. The sums resulting from the sale of the property belonging to the civil list shall be devoted to this purpose; and, in case of the insufficiency of the above sums, the undersigned will endeavour to obtain the concession that the additional amount required shall he furnished by the new government of Mexico.

In witness whereof the undersigned have signed this present declaration. 2em

The representatives of France had fallen into the snare which Maximilian had set for them. The last statement of the collective note betrayed the approach of a new government, which was already prepared to succeed to the monarchy. The three joint-subscribers were deficient in perspicacity: they certainly would not have fallen into this error in diplomacy, if they had been wise enough to compare the language of the two imperial letters which spoke of the return home of the Belgian Legion, between which letters there was a space of only twelve days. The first, dated October 31, 1866, commenced thus:—

In the difficult circumstances in which I am placed, which also, if the negotiations I have just entered upon do not produce a happy result, will force me to resign the powers with which the nation have invested me. . ..

It was now known that these negotiations had failed, and, instead of resigning his power, Maximilian wrote in very doubtful terms indicating a complete change in his ideas.