averted the evil day, could not go on for the want of funds, and the army—such as it was—subsisting on the plunder of helpless villages, perpetrated every conceivable atrocity, and, at last, drove the whole nation to forget private quarrels and unite, as one man, in a war of extermination against the invaders.
When money began to fail, and creditors to clamor, and it became evident, even to his dull senses, that a change must come, instead of reducing expenses, converting everything available into funds with which to pay the army and recruit followers from all ranks of society, then inaugurating a new and vigorous, but honorable campaign, he dallied and trifled, yielding to first one party, then the other, never being in the same mind two days in succession, and, finally, committed the fatal mistake of endeavoring to crush his enemies at a blow of the pen instead of the sword, and by compelling them to fight with the halter around their necks, increase the effectiveness of his own army, which wanted every element calculated to ensure success for his cause. When he signed the black flag decree, he reduced his followers to the level of common cut-throats and banditti, and drove his opponents to desperation.
I do not believe that the establishment of a permanent Empire in Mexico was ever practicable, but Maximilian might have won to himself a large and influential party, which would have sustained him for a long time, and in the end might have retired from the country without dishonor to himself, and with the respect, if not the sympathy of mankind, had he but possessed the smallest amount of practical common sense, and been less easily tickled with empty compliments, paid applause, and the gaudy feathers and tinsel with which
