Page:The rise and fall of the Emperor Maximilian.djvu/307

 To M. Larès, President of the Council of Ministers. Mexico, January 27, 1867. I have received your letter of the 25 th instant. I might well confine myself to merely acknowledging the receipt of it, because I do not admit that you can address me at your will, and next because your letter treats of matters which have been already settled, both in writing and also by former conferences.

In my replies to you or to the various under-secretaries of state, your excellency will find the explanations you desire.

You appear to accuse the French army of want of energy—have not I a much greater right to exclaim against the arbitrary acts and deeds of violence which have been daily committed for some weeks past, and does not our presence in Mexico appear to render the flag of France an accomplice in these proceedings? For this reason, sir, and because the wording of your letter betrays a feeling of mistrust undoubtedly based upon calumnies which affect our honour, I consider it necessary to state to you that I do not wish to have any further communication with your ministry.

The emperor, ill-advised by Father Fischer, sent no reply; and the commander-in-chief never saw his majesty again. The rupture was complete. The imperial confessor had been the originator of it, by urging on the minister to insult the dignity of a commander-in-chief whom he knew to be a slave to precise instructions. Another incident occurred to crown the matter. At the moment of leaving, for the sake of the French officers and soldiers who had deserved well of Maximilian, and belonged to the regiments which had been always fighting for him, our head-quarters' authorities, in spite of their own causes of complaint, were not afraid to remind the emperor of the proposal that he had made long back, to present them with the Cross of Guadeloupe. Abbé Fischer intercepting this despatch, wrote to General Osmont, the former minister, as follows:—