"If your majesty will permit me, I will now go," said Count Bismarck, "that the measures you have commanded may be promptly carried out."

He moved away as if about to withdraw.

"What news have we from Paris?" asked the king.

Count Bismarck walked back into the room. His expression was rather gloomy.

"Benedetti is silent, your majesty, contrary to his usual custom; but Count Goltz informs us they urge action in Paris, and he is given to understand the emperor's inclination will cause him to side with Austria, if we do not soon take some decided step. I have reason to think," he added, "there is some separate treaty on foot about Venice, and at the last moment we may find they have played us some trick, so I have been informed by a reliable agent in Vienna; and Count Usedom declares he is dissatisfied with the Italians, and that he meets with a good deal that is of an equivocal nature. Nevertheless," continued the minister, "I am not much disquieted by all these intrigues, they will yield nothing in Vienna,--there they are still quite too much on the high horse. However, I have sent instructions to Florence, desiring them to be watchful and energetic, and to act in harmony with our military operations."

"But what does the Emperor Napoleon want?" asked the king.

"Always to fish in troubled waters," replied Count Bismarck, with the reckless candour peculiar to him; "but if he is now urging us to war, I don't think the fishing will be lucky for him. I have questioned Benedetti on the secret proceedings now going on between Paris and Vienna. He declares he has been informed of nothing; but at least he can let them know in Paris that _here_ we are not deaf of both ears."

"I have never thoroughly liked this Italian alliance," said the king, "though I own its great usefulness. Oh! that it might have been otherwise, and that, as in my youth, conjointly with Austria we might have turned our arms in another direction."

The minister studied the king's face with anxious eyes.

"And if it had been otherwise," he cried, with animation, "your majesty would never have been able to free Prussia, our glorious, rising country, the creation of your great ancestor, from the chains with which the envy and malice of the great European powers fettered her, by the suggestion and guidance of Austria,--this Austria who never was German, who used Germany only as a footstool for her ambition in Europe, and who was always ready to sell, to betray, to divide it. No, your majesty, I rejoice that we are forced to act, and that at last the royal eagle may spread his wings freely in the air. 'Nec soli cedit' is his motto, and he will fly to the sun, though the way be through thunder-clouds. I see before me the great and brilliant future of Prussia and of Germany, and I am proud and happy that it has been granted to me to stand beside the king, who is the creator of this future."

King William's clear gaze rested thoughtfully on the excited, enthusiastic face of his minister. His own eyes had sparkled at the words of the bold statesman who stood before him confident of victory, but he raised his looks to heaven, and said quietly and simply--

"As G.o.d wills!"

Count Bismarck looked with emotion at his royal master as he stood before him in such simple greatness, and an expression of astonishment crossed his features, as the mighty sovereign, on the eve of a fearful war, which must have so great an influence on the future, laid aside all his hopes, all his ambition, all his misgivings, in these three simple words.

"Has your majesty any further commands?" he asked, in a voice which still showed traces of his former excitement.

"No," replied the king, "hasten to send off the despatches."

And with a friendly nod he dismissed the minister-president.

Count Bismarck left the king's cabinet and the palace, and walked back quicker than he had come, to his own house in Wilhelmsstra.s.se, and he heeded even less than before the angry looks cast at him as he walked along under the lime trees. His face expressed proud satisfaction, and his manner joyful confidence. The great war, which his feelings and his convictions showed him to be unavoidable and necessary, was to begin, and he believed in its happy termination with a firmness and security, which excluded all doubt and hesitation.

On the ground floor of the minister's hotel, to which he was hastening back on account of the many pressing affairs awaiting him, in a plain office-like room, before a table piled with papers, sat Herr von Keudell, the Minister of Legation. He was engaged in animated conversation with a man of about six or seven and thirty, with fair hair and moustache, whose open features of the North German type possessed great mobility of expression, and whose clear grey eyes shone with good nature, humour, and talent. This man, who was dressed with the peculiar elegance only met with in large cities, sat leaning back in a great arm-chair, which was placed near Herr von Keudell's writing table. His manner was a mixture of the bourgeois and the dandy, and he balanced his glossy hat on his knee, whilst with his hand he prevented it from falling.

"You believe then, dear Beckmann," said Herr von Keudell, "it will be possible to keep the Paris press in our favour during the war, and eventually to prevent the voice of public opinion in France from declaring for Austria?"

"Nothing easier," replied Herr Albert Beckmann, the clever and witty editor of the newspaper the "Temps," who for the last twenty years had lived in the journalist circles of Paris, and had acquired a perfect knowledge of all the tastes and manners of the inhabitants of the great capital of the world, without ever losing the peculiarities of his German origin. "Nothing easier. Neffzer is devoted to you; he will write you up from true conviction, otherwise we could not get him to do it. The 'Siecle' is for you,--all liberal papers look on Prussia as progress, on Austria as reaction, and they will greet any Prussian success with joy,--they would all condemn an alliance of France with Austria as the height of folly. To obtain the voices of these papers in your favour is quite unnecessary; it will only be needful to give them the right direction, by sending them all news, diplomatic and military, quickly, and well arranged. With regard to that--je m'en charge!"

And he stroked his hand over the nap of his hat, twirled his small light moustache, and leant back in his chair with a satisfied air.

"But the clerical papers, 'Le Monde,' 'L'Univers?'" asked Keudell.

"Ah! c'est plus difficile!" replied Herr Beckmann, "these gentlemen are very Austrian, and hard to manage. In the 'Monde' the German correspondent is a cousin of mine, Doctor Onno Klopp."

"Onno Klopp is your cousin?" asked Herr von Keudell.

"Il a cet avantage," said Beckmann; "and he writes under the name of Hermann Schultze, but I must say he is very wearisome, and as he cannot write in French all his articles have to be translated, which makes them still more unpalatable to the public. Fortunately, it is enough for these papers to take one side, to make all Paris take the other."

"But have they not great influence at court?"

"Pas du tout, not the smallest," replied Herr Beckmann, confidently; "the emperor only attends to the independent papers, and never cares what the ultramontane journals say. I can a.s.sure you one article in the 'Temps' or the 'Siecle' would have more influence on him than a whole campaign in the 'Monde' or 'L'Univers.'"

"Do you not believe," suggested Keudell, "that the Austrian policy will also work upon the press, and that they will do all they can to turn public opinion in France in favour of Austria? They will not scruple as to means. Prince Metternich----"

"Ah! bah!" cried Beckmann. "Prince Metternich will do nothing; he is _trop grand seigneur_ to work on the press. He has the Chevalier Debraux de Saldapenha at his side, who will write him an article in his Memorial Diplomatique, very fine, very diplomatic, very elevated, and which no one will read. Enfin," he added, "true public opinion will be for you. Ollivier too--Emile Ollivier, the Roman citizen, with a longing in his heart for the portfolio," he said, with a laugh, "is quite Prussian, and will do more with his conversation than any newspaper."

"You think the portfolio has charms for Emile Ollivier?" asked Keudell, with surprise.

"He will be minister one day," replied Herr Beckmann, confidently, "on fera cette betise. For the present he is the man of the opposition, and his voice is powerful. He is out and out the partizan of Prussian supremacy in Germany; that suffices. There are still," he continued, "the 'Revues hebdomadaires;' they have as much influence as the daily papers, as they are read quietly and digested. But we are fortunate in occupying the territory beforehand. I know all the editors, and I think I can easily work upon them in your favour. You remember how favourably my pamphlet, 'Le Traite de Gastein,' was received? I wrote it after I had had the honour of talking to the minister-president at Wiesbaden."

"Certainly," said Keudell. "I was surprised at the support we received from the French press; and we are still thankful to you for it."

"Pas de quoi," said Herr Beckmann, "I acted from conviction. I wished Count Bismarck's ideas on a newly-const.i.tuted Germany to have a favourable hearing in France, and I will still work for the same cause, because I consider his plans just and right. _Apropos_, did you know that Hansen is here?"

"Ah!" exclaimed Herr von Keudell.

"I bet he will stay some time," said Beckmann, with a quick side glance, "to watch the situation. You can work through him. What you impart to him will go to the right place, and will reach the press."

Keudell slightly bowed his head.

"Now," said Beckmann, "I think I had better go back as fast as I can to Paris, and open the campaign."

He rose. A servant entered.

"His excellency awaits the Minister of Legation."

"I come," said Keudell. He gave Beckmann his hand, and said: "Let us soon hear of your diligence. You will pa.s.s through Hanover just in time to see the general flight."

"I am sorry Hanover is against you," said Beckmann. "It is my own country, and though I left it so long ago, I have a natural and deep regard for it. However, it will be all right when the great conflict is once over; now Fate must have her way."

And he took leave of Herr von Keudell, who forthwith mounted the broad staircase which led to the minister's room's.

CHAPTER XI.

THE LAST DAY AT HERRENHAUSEN.

King George of Hanover sat in the forenoon of the same 15th of June in his cabinet at Herrenhausen. The fresh air blew through the open windows, the flowers in the room gave out a pleasant perfume, and the fountains splashed and sparkled before the king's windows in, his own especial garden. Everything in the royal residence breathed rest and profound peace, placed as it was quite out of the noise of the town in delightful solitude.

Privy councillor Lex sat at the table near the king, occupied in reading aloud to him the events which had just taken place.

The attendant had brought the king a cigar with some long wooden tongs, and George V. leant comfortably back in his arm chair, slowly blowing a thin blue cloud from the fragrant leaf of the havannah.

"The result of the votes at Frankfort yesterday is known, your majesty," said Lex.