NEGOTIATING WITH PRINCES
laid out upon it is not merely honourable but extraordinarily useful if only the negotiator himself knows how to profit from it.
The Value of Good Cheer.Indeed it is in the nature of things that good cheer is a great conciliator, that it fosters familiarity, and promotes a freedom of exchange between the guests, while the warmth of wine will often lead to the discovery of important secrets. There are several other functions for the employment of public ministers, as for instance that of informing a prince of good or evil tidings regarding his own master, or that of conveying compliments or condolences in a similar case to the prince himself. A negotiator who knows his business will not neglect even the least of such opportunities, and he will perform his function in such a manner as to show that his master is truly interested in all that passes at the foreign court. Indeed the best negotiator is he who forestalls even the orders of his own master, and shows himself so apt a negotiator of his intentions that he is able to act in advance of each event of the kind, and thus present his master's sentiments in appropriate language before any other foreign diplomatist has even begun to consider the matter. And when he actually receives his master's orders on the subject, should they turn out to be of a somewhat different character than the expressions he has already used, his own adroit-119
