Page:The rise and fall of the Emperor Maximilian.djvu/258

242 with the co-operation of Porfirio Diaz, for whom he professed to feel more esteem than for General Ortega (whose forfeiture of his parole he could not forget), although the latter was the candidate recommended at Paris. 'If this eventuality should occur,' continued the marshal, 'we should neither assist nor accept as a claimant to the presidential chair any republican chief who would not fully recognise the French debt by giving us solid guarantees for the same. If we come to terms, and in this I shall follow the instructions of my sovereign, we shall treat regularly as one government with another, and on this score we shall, of course, hand over to the new president the fortified places of the republic as well as the Mexican artillery and arms.'

In reply to a special observation as to the giving up of six thousand muskets, which had been ordered at Maximilian's request, it was stated that these would be included among the matériel which would be handed over to the future chief of the state when lawfully recognised. M. Otterbourg's own declaration would suffice to attest the authenticity of this conversation, in form as well as in import; as it was this declaration which gave rise to Porfirio Diaz's famous letter addressed to Romero, Juarez's minister, and lately published by the cabinet of Washington. The third party, to whom Porfirio alluded, is none other than this American consul, who was in no way authorised to make himself the mouth-piece, either official or semi-official, of the French head-quarters to this disaffected chief, as he himself can attest. The proposition which Porfirio alluded to as having been rejected as not very honourable, refers to the recognition of the debt and the French loans. As to the eventual giving up of the cannon and muskets, it is explained