Page:The rise and fall of the Emperor Maximilian.djvu/68

52 and with a set purpose which cannot be disclaimed by the authorities.

This agitation, maintained by party spirit, is sanctioned to some extent by events to be regretted in every respect, and the responsibility of which can only be attributed to agents whose incapacity or weakness may be pointed out without exercising any too great severity.

The late events at San Angel, where armed bandits have just seized, in the very centre of the town, the arms and stores which had been placed at random in an unguarded house, abundantly prove that the civil authorities are not on the watch, but that they lull themselves into a deplorable sense of security, even if they are not guilty of a corrupt complicity.

The people themselves, whose zeal and devotion are so praised by certain functionaries, are wanting in energy at the moment of action, and this may be certainly laid to the deficiency in promptitude and initiative spirit of those who, by their position, ought to have persuaded them to resistance, even if they had not urged them by their example.

The latest news that I have received from Zacuatilpan depict this town as abandoned by its inhabitants, who were making their escape, as also were the brigands, pursued by a handful of our soldiers.

This state of things is much to be regretted, and I cannot too much impress upon your majesty that a circular should be addressed to the people, and widely circulated among them, to persuade everyone to remain at their homes to defend their hearths, or at all events not to abandon them. . . . With the deepest respect, madam, &c. 2em

It was proved by documents that our military commandants had only acted according to the orders that they had regularly received, and that their conduct could not be otherwise than approved of. Unfortunately, the fidelity of the imperialist authorities did not come up to the rectitude of the French officers. Even where the former were not accomplices of the enemy, they slumbered in a strange security, allowing,