* D'Hericault, pp. 82, 83.
But to return to this now historic entertainment. The general situation was summed up finally in a serio-comic manner in a song which, if it then brought down the house, afterward drew severe criticism upon the thoughtless heads of author and performers:
Oui, cette terre
Hospitaliere
Un jour sera, c'est moi qui vous le dis,
Pour tout le monde
L'arche feconde
Des gens de coeur et des colons hardis.
Que faut-il donc pour cesser nos alarmes?
De bons soldats et de bons generaux,
De bons prefets et surtout des gendarmes,
Des financiers et des gardes ruraux.
Refrain:
Allons courage,
Vite a l'ouvrage;
La France est la pour nous preter secours.
Vieux incredules,
Sots ridicules,
De nos travaux n'entravez pas le cours.
This song, pledging France to back up Mexican enterprise in every venture, may serve to show how ignorant all were at this time of the sudden determination taken by the Tuileries to set aside the agreement of July 30, 1866, and to put an immediate end to the intervention.
It was written by a member of the marshal's military household, and the refrain was sung by a chorus of the marshal's officers, in the presence of the marshal himself, and of a large audience composed of French, Austrian, and Belgian officers, as well as of members of the imperial government, on September 26, 1866, i.e., just at the time when General Castelnau, who landed at Vera Cruz on October 10, was starting on his mission, the object of which was to force the abdication of Maximilian, and to bring about the winding up of the empire and the immediate return of the army.
At this very time, it will be remembered, a contract was being entered upon by the French government with the house of Pereire, which was to furnish immediate home transportation for the French army.*
* Bigelow, letter to Seward, October 12, 1866.
The song was not meant to be the cruel jest which it must have seemed to those about the Mexican Emperor who were better informed with regard to Napoleon's negotiations with the government of the United States. By those whose all was at stake it must have been taken for a wanton insult.
Indeed, society in Mexico was not just then in the right frame of mind to appreciate M. de Massa's witticisms. Even among his own friends they proved singularly infelicitous.