Page:The rise and fall of the Emperor Maximilian.djvu/319

Rh This general had just directed the abandonment of the towns of Cordova and Orizaba, in order to concentrate his forces at Vera Cruz. A few days after, the last French regiments crowded on board our ships, and bade adieu to the shores of Mexico and to their brave comrades who lay buried in that distant land.

Six weeks after, the 'Souverain' anchored in the roadstead of Toulon. Immediately on its arrival, the maritime prefect and the commandant of the subdivision proceeded on board the vessel which conveyed Marshal Bazaine. They announced to him, in the names of their respective ministers, that an order had been given not to pay him the accustomed honours. The inhabitants, already informed of these arrangements by the Gazette du Midi, which had not been contradicted by the authorities, crowded upon the quay; his reception was a hostile one. The marshal had to make his way through the crowd, carrying his head high, but with a wounded heart; when he set his foot on his native soil he had the consciousness of having thoroughly done his duty as a French soldier.

Our government, usually so jealous of the honour of the meanest of its functionaries, knows well how to restrain the press, and to prohibit the admission of foreign newspapers, when they deviate from certain principles. Three months before the commander-in-chief returned to Europe, pamphlets of American origin, and others of a similar character, were allowed to inundate our country, thus holding up to common shame the name of a marshal of France, and, in fact, misleading public opinion. It was soon forgotten that a marshal was bound to silence by his sense of military discipline, and that the government, being the guardian of the honour of its high dignitaries as well as of its own, alone had the right to speak. But this right is