Page:Dramatic Moments in American Diplomacy (1918).djvu/83

Rh a song. Where kings are killed and beautiful young queens murdered, what chance for an alien and hostile ambassador?

It was at this juncture that Morris established the precedent and tradition of staying by his diplomatic post in time of danger, which has since been the infallible custom of the service—and particularly in Paris. His house became a centre of suspicion—and not without warrant, from the Jacobin point of view. He gave refuge there to aristos in distress, hiding for their lives. Armed men of the Commune invaded his house; he was arrested in the city on the most paltry excuses, and held up on any journey beyond the walls. It was a desperate and dangerous situation. In the end every European ambassador and minister left the accursed city, and the Stars and Stripes alone floated beside the tricolour in Paris. Morris's papers give some idea of his state of mind. He tells of his good-bye visit to the British Ambassador:

"The Venetian Ambassador has been