Page:Vol 6 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/259

Rh was based on more solid grounds, however, for just then Miramon and Marquez returned from Europe and tendered their coöperation. Their fame as the ablest and most influential of conservative generals could not fail to draw recruits, and their assertion that they had more than once extricated themselves from worse positions than the present tended toward widespread encouragement.

And now came a letter from Eloin, at the time on a secret mission in Europe, who brought his undeniable influence to bear against abdication before the French departed, as a sign of weakness, and a triumph to Napoleonic intrigues. Called by the nation, the emperor should appeal to it when freed from the pressure of foreign intervention; and if the appeal failed, he might return to Europe with the prestige of a mission nobly fulfilled. Such conduct, he intimated, would have its effect in Austria, where the discontented people were turning from the present ruler to himself. The aspirations of his brother, real or fancied, reached the ear of Francis Joseph, and he took the precaution to warn him that he would not be permitted to enter Austria as emperor of Mexico, and that the family compact would be adhered to, thus attaching to the return as many humiliations as possible. His mother wrote at the same time that he