master of the art of deception.  No one was a match for him in statecraft.  Even Prince Gortschakoff became his dupe.  By his tact he kept Prussia from being entangled by the usurpation of Napoleon III., and by the Crimean war.  He saw into the character of the French emperor, and discovered that he was shallow, and not to be feared.  At Frankfort, Bismarck had many opportunities of seeing distinguished men of all nations; he took their gauge, and penetrated the designs of cabinets.  He counselled his master to conciliate Napoleon, though regarding him as an upstart; and he sought the friendship of France in order to eclipse the star of Austria, whom it was necessary to humble before Prussia could rise.  In his whole diplomatic career at Frankfort it was Bismarck’s aim to contravene the designs of Austria, having in view the aggrandizement of Prussia as the true head and centre of German nationality.  He therefore did all he could to prevent Austria from being assisted in her war with Italy, and rejoiced in her misfortunes.  In the meantime he made frequent short visits to Holland, Denmark, Italy, and Hungary, acquired the languages of these countries, and made himself familiar with their people and institutions, besides shrewdly studying the characters, manners, and diplomatic modes of the governing classes of European nations at large.  Cool, untiring, self-possessed, he was storing up information and experience.

At the end of eight years, in 1859, Bismarck was transferred to St. Petersburg as the Prussian ambassador to Alexander II.  He was then forty-three years of age, and was known as the sworn foe of Austria.  His free-and-easy but haughty manners were a great contrast to those of his stiff, buttoned-up, and pretentious predecessors; and he became a great favorite in Russian court circles.  The comparatively small salary he received,—­less than twenty thousand dollars, with a house,—­would not allow him to give expensive entertainments, or to run races in prodigality with the representatives of England, France, or even Austria, who received nearly fifty thousand dollars.  But no parties were more sought or more highly appreciated than those which his sensible and unpretending wife gave in the high society in which they moved.  With the empress-dowager he was an especial favorite, and was just the sort of man whom the autocrat of all the Russias would naturally like, especially for his love of hunting, and his success in shooting deer and bears.  He did not go to grand parties any more than he could help, despising their ostentation and frivolity, and always feeling the worse for them.