Page:The rise and fall of the Emperor Maximilian.djvu/313

Rh Larès and Marquez were even now urging Maximilian to leave for Queretaro, knowing well that the sovereign would be powerless away from the capital, where they reckoned upon becoming the sole 'masters of the situation,' after the probable downfall or death of Maximilian. Mejia, up to the time of his execution, certainly stands out as the grandest military personification during this period of Mexican history, in which he shone out by his immutable loyalty and devotion both to the clerical cause and to Maximilian; but the impartiality of history will never be able to ennoble Miramon's head with a similar martyr-like halo of glory. Our government is generally too well informed of all that goes on at Paris not to have known that the former president of the republic used often to say in certain salons, that he was only returning to Mexico to reascend the presidential chair, after the downfall of the monarchy. If he had been successful in his northern campaign, it is a matter of certainty that he would have turned his arms against his sovereign.

Considering all the untoward symptoms which, at the beginning of February 1867, were already beginning to show themselves, one cannot help feeling surprised at the placidity which prevails in the final despatch addressed by General Castelnau to the Emperor Napoleon, dated Vera Cruz, the 14th of February, and conveyed to the telegraph station at New Orleans by the Bouvet advice-boat of our squadron.

The evacuation of Mexico took place on the 5th, and excited sympathetic manifestations only. The withdrawal was effected in perfect order, without firing a shot. The emperor remains at Mexico city, where all is quiet,. . . returns to-day to France.