Page:Dramatic Moments in American Diplomacy (1918).djvu/167

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IN AMERICAN DIPLOMACY
147

mark—with the assurance that only one would be delivered to the Danes. The other, once out of harbour, and the Americans lulled, would be transferred to the original destination.

So great was the popular support gathering behind this rumour that, some weeks before the ships were ready, M. Guérault, Editor of the Opinion Nationale determined to throw down the gage to the royal power and published a ringing article, "Les Corsaires du Sud" in which the government was openly charged with a conspiracy with Arman "against the very existence of a friendly power."

These, the weapons of information and truth, are not so dramatic or so entertaining as the intricate intrigues of Metternich and the bold and bloody paths of daggers and lies by which Richelieu gained his ends. But to-day the world is beginning to realize that they are by far the most powerful of all diplomatic weapons. In this case they insured the hasty retreat of the regal master from his equivocal position. They lined up the forces of public