Page:Vol 6 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/337

Rh feet of the president, and fainted as Juarez in deeply moved voice repeated his refusal.

The ostensible reason for the refusal was not alone that Maximilian, once in safety, would renew his pretensions, amid a group of discontented fugitives, to form his court, but that in case of subsequent internal or foreign trouble, his cause might serve as a dangerous pretence. Among the real reasons were a national jealousy of foreign interference and dictation, and the desire to show that Mexico could act independently. Leniency would be attributed to fear, although another invasion was improbable after Napoleon's failure. Hence the very pleading for mercy proved irritating, and tended to rouse the consciousness of comparative weakness to assume a mask of implacable sternness. The strongest pressure for punishment, however, came from the army, here composed of men from northern provinces, whose aversion to foreigners, unsoftened by lack of intercourse, had been increased by the irritation arising from the proximity of a powerful and suspected neighbor. They cried for revenge on the author of the decree under which their beloved leaders, like Arteaga, had met a cruel end. It also flattered the national vanity of many to aim a blow at divine rights through republican sovereignty, by killing a monarch for lèse-majesté populaire — and a ruler so widely connected among European rulers.

On the 16th of June Maximilian and his