With the March 1907 peasant uprising, N. D. Cocea's profile in political journalism was boosted. He is the probable source of a much circulated canard, taken up by "Adevărul", according to which Romanian authorities had killed 11,000 or more peasant insurgents. Cocea himself eventually settled for a death toll of 12,000, claiming that, "had the peasants' bodies been lined up and down on Calea Victoriei", Romanian King Carol I of Hohenzollern could have walked over to Dealul Mitropoliei "on a soft rug of peasant flesh".