[CHAPTER XXIX.]
THE BOLD STROKE.
Going back a little distance, we will relate what had occurred from the day when Miramón so freely disposed of the money of the Convention bonds deposited in the English consulate, to that which our story has reached; for the political events precipitated the termination of the narrative we have undertaken to write.
As don Jaime had predicted to him, the rather brutal manner in which General Márquez executed his orders, and the most illegal act of seizing the money, cast a fatal slur on the character of the young President, which up to this time had been pure from any violence or spoliation.
On learning this news, the members of the diplomatic body, among others the ambassador of Spain, and the Chargé d'Affaires of France, who were better disposed to Miramón than to Juárez, owing to the nobility of his character, and the loftiness of his views, had from this moment considered the cause of the moderate party represented by Miramón as hopelessly lost, unless one of those miracles, so frequent in revolutions, but of which no possibility could be seen, occurred. Besides, the comparatively large sum of the Convention bonds, joined to that which don Jaime remitted to the President, had not been sufficient to cover the deficit, which was enormous, and had not even sensibly diminished it.
The greater part of the money was employed in paying the soldiers, who not having received a farthing for three months, were beginning to raise seditious cries, and threatening to desert in a body.
The army paid, or nearly so, Miramón began recruiting for the purpose of increasing it, so that he might, for the last time, try the fortune of war, resolved to defend, inch by inch, the power which had been freely entrusted to him by the representatives of the nation. Still, in spite of the confidence he affected, the young and adventurous general did not deceive himself as to the deplorable state of his position, when opposed to the far more considerable, and really imposing forces of the Puros, as the partizans of Juárez called themselves. Hence, before playing the last stake, he determined to try the last resources in his power, that is to say, a diplomatic mediation.
The Spanish ambassador, on arriving in Mexico, recognized Miramón's government; it was therefore to this diplomatist that the President in his desperate circumstances applied, with the object of obtaining a mediation of the resident ministers, to try and effect the re-establishment of peace by conciliation. He proposed to submit to certain conditions of which the following were the most important:—
Firstly.—The delegates chosen by the two belligerent parties, conferring with the European ministers and the representative of the United States, would agree as to the way of re-establishing peace.