Page:The rise and fall of the Emperor Maximilian.djvu/28

12 which she has subsequently proved she is not very prodigal in granting. She was well aware that the guarantee which was demanded of her was almost without limit, and might precipitate her fleet into a conflict with the United States. Even if the British cabinet had been imprudent enough to grant it, the parliament would most certainly have disavowed their act. Thus, Sir C. Wyke, her plenipotentiary, had but one aim, and that was, as is commonly said, to get out of the scrape as well as he could, and, profiting by the joint pressure, to obtain advantageous indemnities which would heal all the wounds of the English claimants. In fact, England has been the one to profit most by the sacrifices we have made, thanks to the deductions made in her favour from the Mexican receipts during the whole time of the expedition.

As to the court of Madrid, General Prim had enticed it into the Mexican expedition, animated as he was by a purely personal ambition. Being allied through his wife to the family of Etcheverria, a member of which was actually in Juarez's council, and keeping up, as he did, an active connection with Mexico, which he knew was always ready for military 'pronunciamientos' the Count de Reuss, whose brilliant reputation had already preceded him, pictured for himself, if not a royal diadem, at least a viceroy's coronet, which would once more attach the former Spanish colony to its mother-country. As soon as he was conscious of the state of things which France desired to introduce, and when he heard of the arrival of the reinforcements brought by General de Lorencez, and intended for an expedition into the interior, which he had flattered himself that he should attempt alone, Prim felt that his illusions were at an end and at once persuaded his government to abandon the project, discountenancing at the same time