Three emissaries arrived in Athens to ask Gobineau for French support for the uprising, saying it was well known that France was the champion of justice and the rights of "small nations".[116] As France was heavily engaged in the war in Mexico Gobineau, speaking for Napoleon III, informed the Cretans to expect no support from France—they were on their own in taking on the Ottoman Empire.[116] He had no sympathy with the Greek desire to liberate their compatriots living under Ottoman rule, writing to his friend Anton von Prokesch-Osten he noted: "It is one rabble against another".[115]