“ The disaster at Cabul, which has aroused a great deal of sympathy here, reminds people that French diplomacy has also had its victims. In the days of Louis XIV., when the Duc de Crequi was ambassador at Rome, the pope’s Corsican guard made an attack on his servants, killed one and wounded several others. The French king immediately marched troops to the frontier, and the affrighted pontiff consented to disband his Corsicans, to exile his brother Maria Chigi, to send his nephew the cardinal to apologize, and to raise a monument in Rome recording the offence and the reparation. ”

“ The French have generally respected the persons of ambassadors; but under the regency the Prince de Cellemarre (the Spanish ambassador) conspired so boldly that the Duke of Orleans had him arrested and imprisoned at Blois. It is true that at the same time the Duc de Saint Aignan, French ambassador at Madrid, was engaged in a conspiracy to overthrow Philip V. and Cardinal Alberoni ”

“ On an Austrian fête-day he dressed the embassy with tricolored flags, and in spite of the efforts of the police his palace was sacked and his flags burned in the public square. Protected by a strong escort, he left Vienna, thinking the Directory would at once declare war ”