pen. And in this expectation also
he was not disappointed. The Emperor was deeply involved in Mexico
and was busily intriguing throughout Europe. This was the time when
Erlanger, standing high in the favor of the Emperor, made his gambler's
proposal to the Confederate authorities about cotton. Another of the
Emperor's friends now enters the play. On January 7, 1863, M. Arman,
of Bordeaux, "the largest shipbuilder in France," had called on the
Confederate commissioner: M. Arman would be happy to build ironclad
ships for the Confederacy, and as to paying for them, cotton bonds might
do the trick.

No wonder Slidell was elated, so much so that he seems to have given
little heed to the Emperor's sinister intimation that the whole affair
must be subterranean. But the wily Bonaparte had not forgotten that six
months earlier he had issued a decree of neutrality forbidding Frenchmen
to take commissions from either belligerent "for the armament of vessels
of war or to accept letters of marque, or to cooperate in any way
whatsoever in the equipment or arming of any vessel of war or corsair of
either belligerent." He did not intend to abandon publicly this cautious
attitude--at least, not for the present. And while Slidell at Paris
was completely taken in, the cooler head of A. Dudley Mann, Confederate
commissioner at Brussels, saw what an international quicksand was
the favor of Napoleon. It was about this time that Napoleon, having
dispatched General Forey with a fresh army to Mexico, wrote the famous
letter which gave notice to the world of what he was about. Mann wrote
home in alarm that the Emperor might be expected to attempt recovering
Mexico's ancient areas including Texas. Slidell saw in the Forey
letter only "views... which will not be gratifying to the Washington
Government."

The adroit Arman, acting on hints from high officers of the Government,
applied for permission to build and arm ships of war, alleging that he
intended to send them to the Pacific and sell them to either China or
Japan. To such a laudable expression of commercial enterprise, one of
his fellows in the imperial ring, equipped with proper authority under
Bonaparte, hastened to give official approbation, and Erlanger
came forward by way of financial backer. There were conferences of
Confederate agents; contracts were signed; plans were agreed upon; and
the work was begun.

There was no more hopeful man in the Confederate service than Slidell
when,