national will.

"The English contingent, which was to come to Orizaba, and had already
prepared its means of transportation, reembarked as soon as it was
known that a number of French troops larger than that stipulated in the
treaty were coming. Your Majesty will appreciate the importance of
their retreat.

"I beg your Imperial Majesty one thousand times pardon for having dared
to submit to your attention so long a letter. But I thought that the
truest way worthily to respond to the kindness of your Majesty toward me
was to tell the truth, and all the truth, as I see it, upon the
political conditions here. In so doing I feel that I not only fulfil a
duty, but that I obey the great, noble, and respectful attachment which
I feel for the person of your Imperial Majesty.

"Comte de Reus,
"General Prim."

Such warnings, however, were lost amid the glittering possibilities of
so glorious an achievement. Napoleon, following his own thought, had
already approached the Austrian archduke and his imperial brother with
regard to the former's candidacy, and had trusted to chance as to the
complications that might arise with his allies. It was not long before
these became clearly defined.

The first meeting of the allies had taken place on January 10 at La
Tejeria, a short distance from Vera Cruz. A proclamation to the Mexican
people was issued at the instigation of General Prim. In this
extraordinary document the representatives of the three great powers who