Page:The rise and fall of the Emperor Maximilian.djvu/270

254 service of France, composed of 8,000 men, shall remain six years in Mexico after all the other French forces have been recalled in conformity with Article 2. From this time the said legion is to pass into the service and pay of the Mexican government. The latter government reserves to itself the power of shortening the period of the employment in Mexico of this foreign corps.'

There was no doubt that the dissolution of this legion would entail the withdrawal of the Austro-Belgian legion, which by itself would be incapable of upholding the monarchy, even for a time. Besides this, the defection of the French volunteers engaged in the ranks of the Mexican army must also surely follow; for they reckoned, beyond everything, on having this almost French element always near them. This contempt for plighted faith on the part of our government affords the greater cause for surprise, because, in a conversation with Mr. Bigelow (November 7, 1866), the Emperor Napoleon had stated to the American minister, that if Maximilian asserted that he could maintain his authority alone, France would not withdraw its troops sooner than M. Drouyn de Lhuys had stipulated for, if such should be the desire of the young sovereign. This was saying clearly that the expeditionary corps should be brought home in three separate divisions, and consequently that the French protection should be secured to Mexico for another year. The day that Mr. Bigelow received this assurance at Saint Cloud from the imperial lips, General Castelnau, in Mexico, was doing the very contrary; for we have seen that the joint note of the three French representatives announced to Maximilian that the Emperor Napoleon had resolved to withdraw his troops en bloc in the early part of 1867. What change, therefore, had taken place in the state