Page:Dramatic Moments in American Diplomacy (1918).djvu/95

Rh A bloody and furious man in combat, but one cool and calculating in council. A master of artillery, taught by the one great master. To wit, a commander of Toulon, Laon, Dego, La Favorita; a hero of Rivoli, the conqueror at Mantua, leader of the "Terrible Regiment," veteran of Lodi and Areola; in short, a captain of men, Victor Perrin, a Marshal of France.

The ships were at the shore. And it may interest the pacifists of Milwaukee to know that their beautiful neighbourhood was the objective of this crusade. New Orleans, the broad basin of the Mississippi, the fair fields of Kansas, the margins of the Great Lakes, and then eventually Canada and the Citadel of Quebec—these constituted no idle dream in the minds of the scalers of the Alps and the conquerors of Venice.

The danger that threatened the United States at this moment was the greatest it has ever faced. Napoleon Bonaparte's restless ambition, stirred by the recollection of the