Page:Vol 6 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/64

44, which Napoleon and his sycophants called anarchy. The French plenipotentiaries so understood it, and proceeded to carry out the predetermined On the 16th of April they issued a proclamation at Córdoba, calling on all Mexicans friendly to the intervention to join their standard, disclaiming any intent to wage war on the Mexicans as a nation, and declaring it a piece of absurdity to believe that the government, born of popular suffrage, of one of the most liberal nations in Europe, could ever pretend to establish among a foreign people old abuses and institutions incompatible with the present age. They appealed to Mexicans to be the instruments of their own salvation; they wanted justice for all, and that without the necessity of imposing it by arms. And yet, while trying to make the Mexicans believe they had their future destiny in their own hands, the plenipotentiaries reminded them of the presence of the French flag firmly planted in Mexico, never to recede, and woe betide those who might attempt to assail it. The next day appeared Almonte's manifesto calling on his countrymen to have faith in French assurances, and to unite their efforts with his to secure what he deemed a proper government. measure.

On the 21st of March the reactionary leader Antonio Taboada came to the French camp at Tehuacan, reporting his escape from a republican cavalry force, and that General Manuel Robles Pezuela, who had left the capital with him, was a prisoner, and