Page:The rise and fall of the Emperor Maximilian.djvu/302

is shameful. I feel sure that you will not allow that such an abuse of authority should take place in the name of the French. I allowed Mendez to proceed to Mexico, because he was going under the shadow of the French flag. If I had known that it was the clerical party which he would have to deal with, I should not have permitted him to go away. I hope that you will be good enough to see that Mendez is set at liberty. Receive, &c., Florentino Mercado.

The rebels, whose right to resist invasion we have the honour of being the first in France to defend, never fell into the error of mixing our army up with our policy. The following letter from Porfirio Diaz' chief of the staff shows that in the liberal camp they knew how to attribute due honour to the courage of their enemies:—

Republican Army.

Oajaca, December 29, 1866.

To the Chief of the Staff in the French Expeditionary Corps.

I have the honour of sending you, by the hands of M. Ch. Thiele, the sword worn by the Commandant Testard, who was killed in the action at Miahuatlan.

I should be glad, M. le Colonel, for this weapon to be transmitted to his family; and it will be a proof to them of the esteem which we, although enemies, feel for M. Testard, whose courage and self-devotion we admired on the field of battle which was so fatal to him. Espinoza,

Chief of the Staff to the Commander-in-Chief

of the Army of the East.

The time had now arrived for the Austrians to quit the soil which they had watered with their blood. Before they withdrew, they thought that it was right to bid farewell to their companions in arms, who had not forgotten their heroic resistance in the plains of Lombardy. They, too, had paid dearly for the honour