Page:The rise and fall of the Emperor Maximilian.djvu/237

Imperial cause, had already prepared for this project, and made them hope for its success. If it had succeeded it is certain that it would have prevented that long agony, the consummation of which stained Queretaro with blood. 'If Maximilian abdicates,' the order ran from Paris, 'a congress is to be assembled. The ambition of the various disaffected chiefs, who are holding the country, is to be excited, and the presidency of the republic is to be conferred on that one amongst them (Juarez alone excepted), who will consent to grant the most weighty advantages to the intervention.' General Castelnau therefore, in spite of the bad reception which the young emperor had given him, must have rejoiced at the turn which things had already taken by Maximilian's own will, and by his spontaneously leaving the territory. For the difficulties of his mission were thus singularly diminished. The approaching downfall of the throne gave, liberty to any combination of government and to the prompt withdrawal of the expeditionary corps, which nothing need detain when the interests of our countrymen were once guaranteed. Now it had been thought in Paris, that the best means of obtaining this guarantee—means which seemed recommended by the long contest and successes of the Liberals—was to aid in the restoration of the presidential chair, in attempting to overthrow which we had uselessly expended so much money and so many lives. The French authorities were, therefore, waiting with keen impatience for the decisive news of Maximilian's embarkation. This event seemed the more desirable, as the country was a prey to a deep-seated agitation which might break out at any moment. The Mexican government, although the ministers still remained passively at their posts, existed only in name, and there was great danger in allowing a crisis to be prolonged