CHAPTER XI.
Bad System of Enlistment followed—Energy of the Empress Charlotte —Destruction of Mejia's Division—The Emperor Napoleon's harsh Reply to M. Almonte's Mission—Its Effect on the Mexican Court— Maximilian's Project of Abdication stopped by the Empress—Her Expedition to Europe—Painful Incident—Fresh Imperial Disasters— Maximilian's Idea of Declaring a State of Siege—It is opposed by Marshal Bazaine.
AS we have seen, Maximilian set great value on the increase of the nine battalions of cazadores. He had a right to reckon on the good disposition of the French who had consented to join them, for the two sovereigns excited the ardent sympathies of our noble army. But the efforts of our head-quarters and the devotion of the French officers who had accepted the difficult task of commanding and forming these nine battalions would all be fruitless if the country itself, the imperial commissioners, and the great landed proprietors did not unreservedly help them by some substantial system of recruitment. The leva, a kind of military impressment, had been abolished in former days by the regency, obeying the noble suggestion of Marshal Forey. The empire had renewed the formal prohibition of resorting to this brutal and inhuman system of swelling the ranks of the Mexican army. But, nevertheless, the leva was still practised. Indians taken by force by the hacenderos, the dregs of the Mexican community discharged from the public prisons, —such were the miserable elements that the political prefects of the provinces persisted in placing at the
