Page:The rise and fall of the Emperor Maximilian.djvu/294

 in-chief—that of sending home the 28,000 men constituting the expeditionary corps. French honour also required that all the places which we still held should be made over to Maximilian in a good state of defence, with stores sufficient for the garrisons directed to occupy them. A just feeling of delicacy also dictated to our government that our unfortunate ally should profit by all the resources sent out from Europe for the use of the expeditionary corps, and warehoused by our commissaries at Mexico and at Vera Cruz.

All these questions had been foreseen at Paris. It must be acknowledged that they had not been settled under any very generous inspiration as regarded Maximilian. They were dated September 15, 1866, and enjoined the commander-in-chief 'only to bring to France the best of the horses, the value of which had been ascertained to be greater than the considerable cost of freight.' All the other animals were to be sold (no matter at what price) either in Mexico or in the Havannah. It was recommended that the rest should be conveyed for sale to our colonies of Martinique or Guadeloupe. 'You must not,' added the despatch to our head-quarters, 'leave your artillery stores in Mexico.'

This order was just and necessary, as regarded the artillery itself; for cannon marked with the arms of France are almost like standards, which must never be relinquished to foreign hands unless dearly sold. As to the horses—in the ranks of which were reckoned some old servants from the Crimea, Algeria, and Italy, which were worn out by old age and this last campaign— it would have been better to have presented them to the Emperor. Through this not being done, they helped to increase the squadrons of the Liberal cavalry, who thereby acquired the actual superiority, which we had