Page:The rise and fall of the Emperor Maximilian.djvu/130

It may, therefore, be well understood what a difficult part to play had now fallen on our commander-in-chief, having to decide between accomplishing the orders of his sovereign—in which a soldier cannot fail without forfeiting his honour—and witnessing the sad spectacle of the ruin of a throne through the sudden and frightened change in French policy, now hurrying on the destruction of its own handiwork. The marshal did not conceal from himself that he was about to tread a path bristling with obstacles and full of sadness, in which a feeling of duty and the security of the expeditionary corps (justly discontented at its passive attitude) had to be reconciled with all the consideration due to a prince borne down by great misfortune and embittered by our sudden desertion.