A moment afterwards, at a sign from Bismarck, the secretary opened the door for the French amba.s.sador.

Count Bismarck's expression had completely changed. Calm repose and courtesy were in his face. He stepped forwards to receive the representative of the Emperor Napoleon, and shook hands with him.

Monsieur Benedetti presented a remarkable contrast to the powerful form and firm soldier-like bearing of the Prussian minister. He was somewhat past fifty, his thin hair had receded from his forehead, and only sparingly covered the upper part of his head. His smooth beardless face was one of those physiognomies whose age it is difficult to discover, as when young they look older, when old, younger, than they really are.

It would have been difficult to say what characteristic, what individuality, such features could express, nothing was seen beyond a calm expression of receptive and intelligent sensibility to every impression; what lay behind this gentle courteous exterior it was impossible to discover. His eyes were bright and candid, apparently careless and indifferent, it was only by the rapid and keen glance with which he occasionally took in every circ.u.mstance around him, that he betrayed the lively interest that really actuated him. His face told nothing, expressed nothing, and yet one perceived involuntarily that behind this nothing lay something, carefully concealed.

He was of middle height, and the bearing of his slender figure was elegant, in his movements he was as animated as an Italian, as pliant and elastic as an Oriental, his light summer clothes were extremely simple, but notwithstanding the journey from which he had just returned, they were of spotless freshness.

"I have been expecting you with impatience," said Count Bismarck, fixing his penetrating steel-grey eyes upon the amba.s.sador's calm face.

"What did you find in Vienna? do you bring peace?"

"At least I bring the beginning. I bring the acceptance of the preliminaries as proposed by the emperor."

"Ah! they decided thus in Vienna?" cried Count Bismarck.

"I have had a difficult job," said Benedetti, "for it was far from easy to gain Austria's consent."

Count Bismarck shrugged his shoulders.

"What can they hope for?" he cried; "do they prefer to await us in Vienna?"

"They hope much from the southern army, from a great military rising in Hungary," said the amba.s.sador.

"Perhaps too for a new John Sobieski?" asked Bismarck, with a slight smile.

"And I must really own," continued Benedetti calmly, "that I was not in a position to deny the justice of these, hopes."

Count Bismarck looked at him amazed and enquiringly.

"Two-thirds of the southern army," said Benedetti, "stand in the immediate vicinity of Vienna, the Prater is turned into a bivouac, and the fortified camp at Floridsdorf could make a strong resistance; the troops of the southern army are full of confidence from recent victory, and are inspired with the best dispositions, the Arch-Duke Albert is a general of great determination, and the chief of his general staff, Lieutenant Field-Marshal von John, an officer of fine and quick intelligence."

Count Bismarck listened in silence. A scarcely perceptible smile played round his lips.

"And Hungary?" he asked negligently.

"Negotiations have been carried on with Count Andra.s.sy and the Deak party, and if they will but grant a self-const.i.tuted government, and agree to the arming of the Honveds, a mighty rising may be expected in Hungary."

"_If_ they grant it," said Count Bismarck. "Hungary has been often deceived, besides our troops have been before Presburg ever since the battle of Blumenau, and have only _not_ taken it on account of the armistice. The key of Hungary is in our hands."

"They are persuaded in Vienna," proceeded Benedetti, "that the Prussian army has suffered greatly in the various engagements, and also from sickness."

"We suffer most from standing still," cried Bismarck vehemently.

"For all these reasons," said the amba.s.sador quietly, "it was not easy to gain Austria's consent to the peace programme drawn up by my sovereign. It was very hard to the emperor Francis Joseph to agree to the exclusion of Austria from Germany. At last he yielded to the urgent representations I made in the name of the emperor, and that he might no longer expose Austria to the chances and burdens of war, and no longer endanger the peace of Europe, the emperor of Austria at last accepted the programme."

Count Bismarck bit his moustache.

"This programme is now definite, with the consent of Austria?" he asked. He invited the amba.s.sador to be seated by a movement of the hand, and took a chair opposite to him.

"Nothing has been altered," replied Monsieur Benedetti, "the integrity of Austria, but its exclusion from Germany as newly const.i.tuted; the formation of a North German Union under the military leadership of Prussia; the right of the southern states to form an independent confederated union, but the maintenance of a national connexion between North and South Germany, which connexion is to be determined by a free and general consent of the various states."

As the amba.s.sador slowly and distinctly repeated this programme Count Bismarck accompanied each phrase with a quick nod of approval, whilst he slightly clasped the fingers of both his hands.

"Those are the rules laid down for the position of Austria, and for our own position in Germany," he said, "as we before agreed. As the foundation of the negotiations, since Austria accepts them, they suffice, but as the basis of a definite peace a further understanding is needful. Peace with Austria does not affect and must not affect our proceedings with regard to the other German states with whom we are at war."

"Austria leaves each of these states to conclude its own peace," said Benedetti.

"To conclude peace!" cried Count Bismarck. "These governments would be willing enough to conclude peace now, and on the first opportunity to begin the game afresh!"

After a short pause he continued in a calm voice:

"Some days ago the king imparted to the emperor your sovereign by telegraph, that a certain addition to the power of Prussia through acquisitions of territory had become needful. You have lived among us," he continued, "and you well know the stake Prussia had placed on this war, the sacrifices that have been made to carry it on, the wounds which war has inflicted on the country. The Prussian people expect--demand, a reward for their sacrifices, since victory has decided in our favour: they demand, and rightly, that the blood of Prussian soldiers, the sons of the people, shall not have been shed in vain, and that the state of things shall be definitely done away with, which always has caused and always would engender strife. Those vexatious boundaries which make Prussia's geographical position, and her unity, so difficult, which neither natural nor political considerations permit, must be removed--removed for ever. Prussia, rightly to fulfil and powerfully to carry out the position a.s.signed to her in Germany by the peace basis, must before all things be thoroughly strong and more h.o.m.ogeneous. The incorporation of Hanover, Hesse, and Saxony is needful, firmly and indissolubly to connect the two halves of the monarchy, and to secure it against Austria in a military point of view."

Not a feature of the amba.s.sador's smooth face changed.

"I find it only natural that the Prussian people should wish to pluck the richest fruits of a war in which _their whole force_," he said, with a slight emphasis, "was sent to the battle-field. But the wishes of the people are often different from the views of princes and governments. You are as much convinced as myself," he continued, in a lower voice, "that every period has its peculiar political maxims and views. To-day, for example, they are different from what they were in the time of Frederick the Great; it was then held right to keep what you had taken. At that time interests and demands were not so moderate as at present."

A slight frown appeared between Count Bismarck's eyebrows.

"Well," he said, with a smile, and in a calm voice, "I think Frederick the Great found it not so easy to keep what he had taken; that political maxim was practised on a large scale in the beginning of the present century by Napoleon I."

"That was the great fault of the founder of our imperial dynasty," said Benedetti, "at last it armed the whole of Europe against him; I am able to say this candidly, when I reflect on the wise moderation the emperor, my sovereign, has ever shown, when at the head of victorious armies, and the care with which he has avoided this mistake of his great uncle."

Count Bismarck looked for a moment thoughtfully before him.

"You know," he then said, with perfect frankness, "how important I deem our good understanding with France; the emperor knows it too, and particularly at this moment I would on no account even _appear_ to have neglected the wishes or interests of France, or to have refused her advice. The good understanding of Prussia,--of Germany with France, the adjustment of the political requirements and necessities on both sides, the peaceful and friendly intercourse between the two countries, is in my opinion the first condition, for the peace and balance of power in Europe. Let us then discuss the situation calmly and with perfect candour. I can only repeat to you," he said, raising his piercing eyes and fixing them upon the amba.s.sador, "that the increase of Prussia's power by the acquisition of the hostile states appears to me an absolute necessity. Do you think," he proceeded, "that the emperor will deem it needful for the interests of France to oppose these acquisitions?"

Benedetti hesitated for a moment before answering this direct question.

"The emperor has already," he then said, "recognized the necessity of arrangements for uniting the two separate halves of the Prussian monarchy, and this necessity I feel convinced he would now be less inclined than ever to deny. Whether the complete annexation of German states, whose rights were guaranteed by the rest of Europe, is absolutely needful, must be a matter of opinion, but I do not think the emperor will have any other view than for you to carry out your own ideas, and if he does not share, he will not contradict them."

Count Bismarck bowed his head approvingly.

"As to Saxony," added Benedetti.

The Prussian minister looked at him anxiously and expectantly.

"With regard to Saxony," said the amba.s.sador, "I found a strong determination in Austria to maintain its territorial integrity; it is held to be a duty to a confederate who has fought with Austria on the same battlefields."

Bismarck bit his lip.

"I believe," added Benedetti, "that the Emperor Francis Joseph is resolved to carry on the war to the last gasp rather than yield to this condition."

Count Bismarck was silent for a moment.

"And how does France, how does the emperor Napoleon regard this resolution on the part of--Austria?" he asked, with a firm look and a slight smile.

"I believe I may affirm that the emperor entirely shares the wishes of Austria with regard to Saxony," said Benedetti.