1'38 Ten Years of my Life. 



street for fear of being annoyed by their low importunities. 

 Their cupidity was insatiable^ and their behaviour in the coun- 

 try when on some mihtary expedition surpasses anything which 

 we read in old books. Wholesale slaughter and execution of 

 innocent people, burning of houses and robberies, were not 

 even the most atrocious of their crimes ; they committed ac- 

 tions of such cruelty and shamelessness against poor women, 

 before the very eyes of their parents, that the pen refuses to 

 describe them. Their name v»'ill be hated forever in Mexico, 

 and their humiliation and punishment by the brave Germans 

 will without doubt have been heard with rejoicing in that 

 country. 



Bazaine behaved there as if he was the Emperor and Maxi- 

 milian his subordinate. Everybody trembled before him, and 

 even the French, though they feared him, did not love and 

 respect, but rather despised him. So at least did all honour- 

 able men amongst them. 



He was not only arrogant, brutal, and cruel, he was also 

 rapacious and mean, and employed the lowest artifices to en- 

 rich himself. It was well known in Mexico, not only amongst 

 the inhabitants but also by the French ofhcers, that he owned 

 in the city two shops, a grocery and another, in which French 

 goods, as dresses, lace, silks, &c., were sold. He became ex- 

 tremely rich by this trade, for he found very cheap means of 

 transportation, and did not pay any duty. His goods were , 

 conveyed as arms, ammunition, and the like, at the expense of 

 the Government. 



To screen his fast-growing fortune it was said that he inar- 

 ried an enormously rich Mexican lady. This is utterly false, 

 for the girl he married was poor. 



Salm, when coming to Mexico, had a letter to Bazaine from 

 the French Ambassador in Washington, and was received tol- 

 erably well. Not knowing him sufficiently, and not daring to 

 neglect him, I of course had to pay a visit to Madame la 



Marechale. 



She was a charming, rather childlike, and naive little person, 

 who made on me a quite agreeable impression. 



An officer who had great influence with Bazaine was Colonel 

 Vicomte de la None. We paid him a visit and became ac- 

 quainted with his wife, who was a North American. She was 

 extremely fond of admiration, like all American ladies, and. 



