"No, I shall do nothing," he added.
The adventurer looked stupefied.
"I do not understand you, Excellency," he muttered.
"Listen to me, don Jaime, and you will understand me," the President answered in a gentle and penetrating voice: "don Francisco Pacheco, ambassador Extraordinary of the Queen of Spain, has rendered me immense services since his arrival in Mexico. After the defeat of Silao, when my position was most precarious, he did not hesitate to recognize my government. Since then he has offered me the best advice, and given the greatest proof of sympathy; his conduct has been so kind toward me, that he has compromised his diplomatic position, and so soon as Juárez obtains the power, he will certainly hand him his passports. Don Pacheco is aware of all this, and yet, at this moment, when I am all but ruined, his conduct remains the same. It is on him alone—I confess it—I reckon to obtain from the enemy, in the probable event of a defeat, good conditions, not for myself, but for the unhappy population of this city, and the persons who, through friendship for me, have been most compromised latterly. Now the man whose treachery you denounce to me—treachery—I hasten to agree with you—so flagrant, that not the slightest doubt can exist about it: this man is not only a Spaniard and the bearer of a great name, but he was also personally recommended to me by the ambassador himself, whose good faith, I feel convinced, has been surprised, and who was the first person deceived in the matter. The principal object of don Pacheco's mission is, as you cannot be ignorant, to demand satisfaction for the numerous insults offered his countrymen, and reparation for the annoyances to which they have been exposed for some years."
"Yes, General, I am aware of that."
"Good. Now what would the ambassador think were I to arrest on a crime of high treason not only a Spaniard of the highest rank, but also a man whom he recommended to me? Do you suppose he would be pleased, after the numerous services he has already rendered me, and those which he may still be called on to render me, with such conduct on my part? I could, you will say, perhaps, take the letter and discuss the affair confidentially with the ambassador: but, my friend, the insult would be no less grave in that way, as you shall judge. Don Pacheco is the representative of a European government; he belongs to the old school of diplomatists of the beginning of the century: for these two reasons and others I pass over in silence; he holds us poor American diplomatists and governors in but slight estimation, he is so infatuated with his own merit and his superiority over us, that, were I foolish enough to prove to him that he has been deceived by a villain who has played with him with the most daring effrontery, don Pacheco would be furious, not at having been deceived, but because I had unmasked the deceiver: his wounded self-esteem would never forgive me the advantage which chance would gratuitously give me over him, and instead of a useful friend, I should make myself an irreconcilable enemy."
"The reasons you condescend to give me, General, are very good, I allow; but for all that, the man is a traitor."
"That is true, but he is no fool, far from it. If I fight tomorrow and gain the victory, he will remain attached to my fortunes, as he was at Toluca."
"Yes, he will be faithful till he finds a favourable opportunity for ruining you utterly."
"I do not say the contrary; but who knows?—perhaps we shall find, between this and then, the means of getting rid of him without noise or scandal."