diplomat described this interesting interview as follows:
"Permission granted, a man of middle age presently entered, and after closing the door carefully behind him proceeded to say that he had a communication to make of considerable importance to my government. He was a Frenchman of the Gascon type, small of stature, with glittering black eyes, and thick, coarse, jet-black hair, which had appropriated to itself most of his forehead; he was sober and deliberate of speech, as if he had been trained to measure his words and was accustomed to be held responsible for what he said. I was not prepossessed by his appearance, perhaps because of my rather extensive experience of people continually presenting themselves at the consulate in quest of a market for their suspicions, rumours, and imaginings, and who usually introduced themselves, like the person before me, as bearers of information of vital importance.
"I asked him to be seated, and waited for
