Page:The rise and fall of the Emperor Maximilian.djvu/115

flict with the United States, which by the formal instructions of our government we were to avoid. Besides, the scattered state of the expeditionary force had not permitted any movement of this sort so far from the centre of Mexico. It was necessary in the first place to put down the insurrection in the departments close to the capital, and our commander had to hurry off reinforcements to pacify Michoacan.

These sad events tore down the veil by which, up to this time, the ministers had flattered themselves that they could hide the truth from Maximilian, in spite of the warnings given by the marshal.

Some days before, the commander-in-chief had been forced to draw the attention of the emperor to the frequent military pronunciamientos, which bid fair to threaten the very existence of the army.

They are facts which your majesty can explain [said he, stigmatising these desertions] since you are aware that a large number of the authorities have betrayed the government, and that the gardes rurales have been organised in such a way that it really appears as if they had been constituted with the sole idea of furnishing resources to the rebels.

. . . First of all, it is necessary to get rid of perfidious agents, and to ensure the payment of the troops in preference to the other civil service expenditure, which can wait.

The embellishment of the city of Mexico and of the imperial palace at Chapultepec absorbed considerable sums, although the financial position of the country should have claimed this money for more practical purposes. Nevertheless, at the note of alarm proceeding from our head-quarters, Maximilian trembled.

He had just felt the first shocks which were agitating his throne, and on January 6, 1866, he wrote the following lines, which well depict the state of his mind, and the commencement of his sufferings:—'I know that