Page:The rise and fall of the Emperor Maximilian.djvu/298

 French prisoners in the hands of the enemy. The head-quarters authorities, through the official medium of its military cabinet, were compelled to enter into treaty with the liberal chiefs at several different points, to settle the exchange of our countrymen for rebel Mexicans. Murphy, the minister of war, had begged the commander-in-chief, in Maximilian's name, to treat for the liberty of the imperialists who had fallen into the power of the Juarists. The Austrian chargé-d'affaires had also had recourse to the French authorities for the freedom of the soldiers of the Austro-Belgian legion, who had capitulated in the actions at Miahuatlan, La Carbonera, and Oajaca.

Baron Lago had even begged the marshal to intervene personally, a thing he had not done in any former negotiations with Juarez's lieutenants:—

Mexico, January 29, 1867. Monsieur le Maréchal,—The members of the corps of Austrian volunteers having, by the dissolution of this force, ceased to be Mexican soldiers, I take the liberty of appealing to the kindness of your excellency, and beg that you will be good enough to use all your influence and all your efforts to obtain the freedom, as soon as possible, of the Austrian volunteers who are now in the hands of the rebels, especially those at Oajaca. I would, at the same time, beg that your excellency will not allow yourself to be stopped for an instant in this noble task, by any remonstrances or observations that might be made against your personal intervention in the matter above named. Austrian Charge d' Affaires.

The republican generals, however, well understood that it would be highly imprudent in them, for the sake of their own cause, to delay the evacuation of the French army by any threatening demonstration, or even by firing a single shot. From the first, they had shown that they were disposed towards giving up their