Page:Vol 6 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/270

250 by the United States, fostered by the sacking of Bagdad, kept the French from active campaigning, content to hold a few strong positions, and to maintain communication, especially with the ports of Matamoros and Tampico. But this plan could not be long adhered to, in view of the projected retrograde concentration

and the growing audacity of the republicans, encouraged as they were by the passive attitude of their opponents and the motive influencing it.

The principal forces threatening the line of posts