Page:The rise and fall of the Emperor Maximilian.djvu/116

I have accepted a singularly difficult task, but my courage is equal to supporting the burden, and I will go on to the end.' What a painful contrast to the calmness of the following letter, which he wrote to the marshal only five weeks before:—

Mexico, December 2, 1865.

My dear Marshal,—The time has now arrived both to govern and to act. I have reckoned on your help to give me some minutes as to the prefects, the imperial commissioners, and the Mexican generals. Maximilian.

What! had a reign of eighteen months been completely wasted? The necessity of action had not made itself felt until now. The imperial correspondence is full of these strange contradictions. Whilst the departments were rising in revolt, and the want of troops was showing itself by great disasters in many parts of the territory, Maximilian again dreamt of another distant expedition, and stripped, as is proved by the following order, the province of Oajaca, where Porfirio Diaz was about to rekindle the civil war.

. . It must not be forgotten that Franco has organised 2,200 good troops, and that if they come under the orders of General de Thun, it seems natural to require them to contribute in great part to the expedition from Tabasco and Tlapacoyan; for it is not necessary to keep so numerous a force in the state of Oajaca.Maximilian.

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Maximilian cherished the idea of conquering a new province, at a time when the old ones were being wrested away from his crown. And Yucatan, a most unhealthy country, and the refuge of many rebel native tribes, had never been in proper subjection to the old presidential authority.

If eighteen months' experience and various harsh lessons had only inspired Maximilian with wisdom, he ought to have understood that he would be unable