The discovery of the course of events and the trend of policy in a foreign country is most natural when one knows both the personnel and the political habits of the country, and a negotiator for the first time in such a country must neglect no source of information. In addition to those mentioned above, he may very probably find that his colleagues in the Corps Diplomatique will be of use to him, for since the whole diplomatic body works for the same end, namely to discover what is happening, there may arise--there often indeed does arise--a freemasonry of diplomacy by which one colleague informs another of coming events which a lucky chance has enabled him to discern. Such collaboration is possible in all cases except those in which their sovereigns are at variance. As regards the information which can be drawn from the people of the country itself, the surest and shortest method is to make a confidant of some one already in the counsels of the foreign prince, but this must be done only by such means as will enable the negotiator to keep a check upon his correspondent, and thus prevent any damage to his master’s plans. This action is very necessary, for in diplomacy as in war there are such things as double spies paid by both parties. The cleverest of these will begin by giving true information and good advice in order the more thoroughly to deceive the negotiator at a later date. There have even been princes subtle enough to see the advantage of permitting their confidants to behave thus, and I know of cases where the confidant of a sovereign, under the appearance of a secret liaison with a foreign envoy, gave the latter true and false information at the same time, and thus effectively masked the designs of his master. An ambassador must always be on his guard against such deception. [Sidenote: _The Foolish Dutchman._] There was in England in 1671 a Dutch ambassador who was so easily persuaded by certain privy counsellors of King Charles II. that their master had no intention to go to war with the States General that in his despatches home he gave the most explicit assurance that there was nothing to fear from England, treating with ridicule the opinion that London had resolved to attack them; and we have since learned that these English counsellors had been deliberately detailed by the King to play upon the credulity of the Dutch ambassador. There have been in our time ambassadors of other countries who have done the same. [Sidenote: _All News must be tested._]