250
MAXIMILIAN'S VACILLATION.
tion by the United States, fostered by the sacking of Bagdad, kept the French from active campaigning, content to hold a few strong positions, and to maintain communication, especially with the ports of Matamoros and Tampico. But this plan could not be long adhered to, in view of the projected retrograde concentration
Campaign in the North-east.
and the growing audacity of the republicans, encouraged as they were by the passive attitude of their opponents and the motive influencing it.
The principal forces threatening the line of posts
terey, from which a series of posts connected with Matehuala, by way of Saltillo, Encarnacion, Salado, and Cedral.
