ld disturb no nation or
government at present (_i. e._, in 1822) existing on the North or
South American continent, but that they would oppose all attempts
by any European Government whatever to put down any free institutions
that were the choice of the people, or to impose upon them any
form of government against their will.

Napoleon III. did not quite dare to fly in the face of the Monroe
doctrine, even though the United States were embarrassed by civil
war. There were plenty of Mexican exiles in Paris, among them the
Don Gutierrez who offered Maximilian the imperial crown. These men
had secret interviews with the emperor. Thus the way was paved for
Maximilian long before the time came to act, and possibly before
he heard of the matter; for there was a power behind the throne
that was urging his elevation on the French emperor with all a
woman's persuasive powers.[1]

[Footnote 1: Pierre de Lana.]

It was not until after the Empress Eugenie had been left regent
of France, during the campaign of Italy, in 1859, that she took
any part in politics; but from that time her influence was freely
exercised, though she interested herself chiefly in foreign affairs.
She did not like Victor Emmanuel, nor her husband's policy as regarded
Italy. She dreaded the destruction of the pope's power as a temporal
prince. Her sympathies were Austrian, and in conjunction with her
friends the Prince and Princess Metternich she lost no opportunity of
urging the establishment of Maximilian and Carlotta on the imperial
throne of Mexico. She looked upon this as in some sort a compensation
given by France to the House of Hapsburg for its losses in Italy.
To her imagination, the expedition to Mexico seemed like a romance.
She saw two lovers seated upon Montezuma's throne,--the oldest throne
in the New World,--surrounded by the glories of the tropics. When
there, they would restore the privileges of the Catholic clergy, and
would curb the revolutionary aspirations of the mongrel population of
Mexico,--a population which, as a Spaniard, she hated and despised.
To this end she intrigued with all her heart. Indeed, she and her
friends the Metternichs acted in the preliminary arrangements of
the plan the part of actual conspirators.

After the French and Spanish forces landed in Mexico, accompanied
by a few Englishmen, Juarez offered to make compensation for the
wrongs complained of, and an agreement was drawn up and signed
by General Prim and