efforts to obtain from those governments, or any one of them, the establishment of a monarchy derived from one of the dynastic houses of those powers." This step precipitated his ruin; driven out of the country, he was tried once more for high treason, and, being absent, was sentenced to confiscation of all his landed property. Eight years of exile seemed to kill the patriotism once his glory, and in February, 1864, landing in Vera Cruz, he wrote to the Imperial Under Secretary of War stating that he returned to Mexico "to co-operate in the consolidation of the government created by the Intervention." But the Imperialist party declined his offers and refused to permit him to remain in the country. Retiring then to the United States he kept badgering President Juarez with entreaties to be allowed to help defend his native land against the invaders. His country could ill afford, however, to accept such help, as was quite plainly expressed by Señor Lerdo de Tejada, the Mexican Minister of Foreign Affairs. In the closing part of a despatch from this gentleman to Mr. Romero, after touching upon the General's many vacillations, he used the following language:
"Although the government might wish to place in him [Santa Ana] some confidence, it does not believe it possible that it would also be felt by the defenders of the national cause.
"In order not to believe in his new protests of
