Article XVII. The French government shall set free all Mexican prisoners of war as soon as H. M, the Emperor of Mexico shall have entered his empire.
Article XVIII. The present convention shall be ratified and the ratification shall be exchanged as soon as possible.
Done at the Castle of Miramar, on April 10, 1864.
Herbet.
Velazquez.
Additional Secret Articles
[Here follow the ordinary preambles.]
Article I. H. M. the Emperor of Mexico, approving the principles and promises announced in General Forey's proclamation, dated June 12, 1863, as well as the measures taken by the regency and by the French general-in-chief in accordance with said declaration, has resolved to inform his people, by a manifesto, of his intentions in the matter.
Article II. On his side, H. M. the Emperor of the French declares that the actual effective force of the French corps of thirty-eight thousand men shall only be reduced gradually and from year to year, in such a way that the French troops remaining in Mexico, including the foreign legion, shall be of twenty-eight thousand men in 1865, of twenty-five thousand in 1866, of twenty thousand in 1867.
Article III. When the said foreign legion, under the terms of Article III of the above convention, shall pass into the service and pay of Mexico, as it nevertheless shall continue to serve a cause in which France is interested, its generals and officers shall preserve their quality of Frenchmen and their claim to promotion in the French army according to law.
Done at the Castle of Miramar, on April 10, 1864.
Herbet.
Velazquez.
End of Project Gutenberg's Maximilian in Mexico, by Sare Yorke Stevenson