Page:The rise and fall of the Emperor Maximilian.djvu/81

 to complain of the sums which Mexico paid to France; for when he placed on his brows the crown which he had so imprudently accepted, he voluntarily signed article 10 of the treaty of Miramar, which stipulated that the yearly expense of every French soldier should amount to a thousand francs, which Mexico would pay.

But the truth must be told. The imperial notes, which were intended for certain public journals in Europe, were often worded in the secretary's office in a way that, by giving a more gloomy view of matters, would exercise an indirect pressure on public opinion and on the French cabinet; the latter being too much inclined to diminish prematurely its military force, as subsequent events have proved.

It must be observed that these military modifications in the distribution of the forces, which were repeated time after time by the Emperor Maximilian, were but little calculated to give solidity to the troops, who were amazed at constantly having to obey fresh chiefs.

Moreover, the mixture of the Austro-Belgian auxiliary contingents with the national troops was a mistake; for the latter looked upon them with mistrust, and were too much reminded of the foreign extraction of their sovereign; Puebla, too, was exactly like an Austrian camp. Maximilian was likewise in the wrong in establishing, in addition to the ministry of war, a military cabinet—an institution he had derived from his own country—and also in decreeing the formation of a military section comprising the Austro-Belgian troops exclusively, and under direct management. These innovations only tended to weaken the unity of command, and to deprive the marshal—the sole commander-in-chief in virtue of article 6 of the treaty of Miramar (an article which the emperor