44                  THE  EMPEROR  MAXIMILIAN.
'intended both to settle past events and also to put
us in possession of the advantages acquired by our
arms. By this convention, France was bound to
maintain a military force in Mexico on certain settled
conditions. The new sovereign engaged in return
to pay, at the times and in the way pointed out, the
expenses of this occupation ; he engaged also to re-
imburse us the cost of the expedition, and to indemnify
the French whose wrongs had provoked it.'
The official programme was therefore a plain one,
and devoid of all ambiguity ; and Maximilian compre-
hended beforehand the whole import of it. He was
going to reign in Mexico, and to govern it with the
assistance of France ; and in return for this protection,
he promised to honour all the engagements he had
made to our country. The Emperor Napoleon, in
reward for military sacrifices past and future, obtained
the right of carrying out the reimbursement of the
indemnities stipulated by the treaty of Miramar, and
also, after three months' notice, of calling for a bona
fide examination of the debts due to our countrymen
—and all this while proving his moderation. He ought,
therefore, to have reckoned on the co-operation of the
young prince whose ambition, excited and counte-
nanced by his arms, had longed for and had found a
crown.
In spite of the unsteadiness of his disposition, Maxi-
milian possessed a self-willed temper. Even during
the time of the regency at Mexico, he himself, from
his palace at Miramar, put things in train as far as he
thought necessary to prepare for his accession to the
throne. Scarcely had he provisionally accepted the
crown (October 3, 1863) ere he effectively took pos-
session of it, although at so great distance; even at
this epoch he sent precise instructions to M. Almonte,