Page:Vol 6 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/77

Rh It was the old war-cry of the military party of France, calling, as Edgard Quinet said, armed invasion a war for civilization. On the 26th Forey suppressed Almonte's authority, which having been set up without the nation's sanction could not be, as he alleged, approved by the intervention.

Forey forgot his instructions to treat the Mexicans with benevolence, and thus win their coöperation. He, and with him nearly all his officers, assumed the haughty air of conquerors, thus belying the pretended object of their mission. Mexicans, either civil or military, were not treated as friends and allies, but rather as objects of contempt. To rule the country according to his own will, he appointed Commandant Billard director of policy. The director knew no more of the country whose political affairs he was to direct than his commander. Forey's ideas were at variance with those of the conservatives, whose coöperation was needed to render the French intervention effective. In Córdoba and Orizaba he issued new proclamations, and lost much precious time at the last-named place, which seemed to offer him many delightful pleasures. He might have been in Mexico by the middle of November, for the Mexican government was not prepared to withstand such a force. Instead of making a rapid movement, he sent General De Bertier with a brigade to Jalapa, and encamped the main army in Orizaba and the surrounding country. Gonzalez Ortega who now had the chief command of the liberal eastern army, lost no time in fortifying Puebla, bringing artillery and supplies in the face of De