THE  EMPRESS'S  EXPEDITION TO  EUROPE.     149
foot; and now a fresh convention was to be exacted
from him, which would take away his last available
resources—the customs' duties at Tampico and Vera
Cruz, the half of which he was to consent to assign to
France. If this convention was not accepted by him,
the marshal had orders to fall back at once and abandon
Maximilian to his own resources. The imperial family
gave vent to their feelings in bitter complaints, some
of which transpired beyond the precincts of the palace.
The revelations of the future will justify the following
words which, we assert, were pronounced by Maxi-
milian in the hearing of those around him : ' I am
tricked : there was a formal convention entered into be-
tween the Emperor Napoleon and myself, which guaran-
teed me absolutely the assistance of the French troops
until the end of the year 1868; without this I never
would have accepted the throne.' As a matter of fact,
which was not unknown in London, this secret treaty
existed.
Maximilian felt that he had but one step to take,
—that of abdication. On July 7, he took pen in hand
to sign the fall of the monarchy; the Empress of
Mexico stayed his hand. Then it was that the Empress
Charlotte, moved by a generous but ill-considered
feeling, crossed the seas, braving all the fatigues of
the voyage and the fevers of the Terres Chaudes. She
hoped that at Paris and Rome she should be able to
gain her cause ; that is, that she would be able to
settle favourably the three questions which must
decide the fate of the monarchy—the maintenance and
increase of the corps of occupation, some financial
assistance, and the acquisition of an ecclesiastical con-
cordat. If her undertaking was not crowned with suc-
cess, the emperor, after having placed his authority at
the disposal of the nation, was to rejoin his courageous