difficulties, already so great, must become multiplied in a land where
roads were only so called by courtesy and were little more than
beaten-down tracks. The return of the French army to the coast, where
the vomito was now raging, meant death to many, and possible disaster to
the army. But the terms of the treaty were formal, and the admiral was
not one to break his word. M. de Saligny and General de Lorencez were
less punctilious; they reluctantly obeyed the order of the
commander-in-chief, but watched for an opportunity to break through the
impalpable barrier raised--as they thought, by honor alone--between them
and the Mexican capital.

The opportunity soon presented itself, and General Zaragoza,
commander-in-chief of the Liberal army, unwarily furnished General de
Lorencez with the excuse for which he so anxiously longed, by addressing
to him a communication concerning four hundred soldiers disabled by
sickness, who had been left behind in the hospital at Orizaba under the
protection of the treaty of La Soledad. In the wording of this
communication the French general saw, or chose to see, a threat to the
life of his soldiers.

It is but fair to say, however, that the sanguinary decrees issued one
after the other by the Mexican government, the feeling against
foreigners now rapidly growing among the people, the close proximity of
numerous guerrillas standing ready to take advantage of the first moment
of weakness or distress, the murder of French soldiers whenever they
strayed from the camp,--all these symptoms of a fast fermenting spirit
in the invaded land seemed to warrant the apprehensions of the general
with regard to the safety of his trust.

At all events, he boldly assumed the whole responsibility of the step he