When the Colombian Congress duly rejected the Hay-Herran Treaty in August 1903, the New Panama Company became very seriously alarmed. Other offers of purchase were renewed, and the situation became critical for the United States. The American counsel for the company, Mr. William Nelson Cromwell, who had done his utmost to promote the agreement, had the utmost difficulty in keeping his clients to their compact with the United States. He made a hurried trip to Paris, where he said something which had the desired effect. There is no reason to believe that Mr. Cromwell took any part in the surprising events which were soon to alter the entire situation. But he had heard the proverbial "little bird," and the tidings he passed on brought the New Panama directors to the desired mood of patience and expectancy. Colombia meanwhile kept on marking time. She suggested that a new treaty should be negotiated between the United States and Colombia, to be ratified by the Colombian Senate some time in 1904. That would have put the clock forward splendidly, but the device was duly understood at Washington. In October a committee of the Colombian Senate reported to the Senate a recommendation that no agreement should be concluded with the United States until the French concession had lapsed. This recommendation was not acted upon by the Colombian Senate, nor yet were any steps taken towards the negotiation of a new treaty. The American government gave a generous interpretation to the "reasonable time" specified in the Spooner Bill, and kept on waiting in the hope that the Colombian Congress would still change its mind and ratify the Hay-Herran Treaty, whose terms, as we have seen, were liberal to the Colombian Republic. But when the congressional session at Bogota came to an end on October 31, 1903, without any further action over the Hay-Herran Treaty, the Americans concluded that the whole business was over so far as negotiations with Colombia on the Panama question were concerned. Obviously the only course was to turn to the Nicaraguan alternative. And the Colombian government no doubt thought it had won the day by sheer force of astute statesmanship. Then came a coincidence more astonishing than any since the day when Mr. Weller, senior, upset the Eatanswill outvoters (purely by accident) into another canal. The Panama revolution broke out, and the United States suddenly and without further difficulty obtained all they wanted of the isthmus. And Colombia? She lost every stick and stone of the canal which was to have been hers in October 1904, never made a farthing on a Panama deal, got no thanks from Germany or anybody else, and lost a whole province into the bargain. Such were the results of very astute statesmanship at Bogota. CHAPTER VII. A MINIATURE REVOLUTION.