Page:The rise and fall of the Emperor Maximilian.djvu/61

 the president of the regency; subsequently also, after having nominated him lieutenant-governor of the empire on the occasion of signing the treaty of Miramar, he continued to acquaint him with his views; and it must be confessed that at the very outset the latter betrayed, if not actual hostility, at least a great carelessness for French interests; for during the six weeks which elapsed between Maximilian's definitive acceptance of the crown and his landing in Mexico (May 29, 1864), the Marquis de Montholon, French minister at Mexico, who had been commissioned to press the regent to turn his attention to the settlement of the French claims, had to contend with the following evasive reply from M. Almonte:—'I can do nothing; it is necessary for me to take my orders from his majesty, who is at Miramar, and to consult M. Gutierrez de Estrada, who is at Rome.' It was strange that the Mexican cabinet, which had for a long time derived all its suggestions from Europe, had as yet settled nothing even preliminarily on the subject of so urgent a question, which had already been maturely debated between the two sovereigns, which also kept in suspense the interests of so many persons.

No sooner had the emperor trod the soil of his new country than, oblivious of all gratitude (a fault too often attributable to princes), he set aside nearly all the personages belonging to the so-called conservative or clerical party who had assisted the intervention, and seemed bent upon constituting a ministry from elements hostile to the French name, and calling themselves the national party. He was persuaded that it would appear good policy in the eyes of his people to repudiate from the very outset a too great community of action with our government. Thus it was that the fighting party which had kept the field, and had been the first to