Page:The rise and fall of the Emperor Maximilian.djvu/87

 CHAPTER VI.

LL these internal commotions might yet have been appeased if the court of Mexico had only dared in good time to nip the evil in the bud, that is, to shield itself from the filibusters by turning them into its subjects and defenders. Thus, too, it would have thwarted the manoeuvres of Mr. Seward. A favourable opportunity for an attempt of this sort had just presented itself. At the end of May 1865, the Confederate General Slaughter, who commanded at Brownsville, on the opposite bank of the Rio Bravo, hearing of the disasters of the Southerners, hesitated whether he should lay down his arms, or whether he should cross the Mexican frontier with his 25,000 partisans, who seemed disposed to ask shelter from the emperor on the condition of obtaining grants of land in the north-west departments. This invasion of colonists would have been a piece of good luck for Mexico; for these groups of squatters, located like an advance-guard along the river frontier, might one day have the effect of arresting any Yankee invasion from the side of Texas. Negotiations were opened on this point; there was no time to be lost in placing themselves in a position to face certain threatening contingencies. The sending