With the Parliament indeed nothing was to be done; they, of course, strongly supported Augustenburg.  They refused to look at the question from a Prussian point of view.  “On your side,” Bismarck said, “no one dares honestly to say that he acts for the interests of Prussia and as a Prussian.”  They feared that he proposed to hand back the Duchies to Denmark; they refused to consider him seriously as Foreign Minister; they spoke of him as a rash amateur.  It was to attack him on his most sensitive point.  Here, at least, he felt on completely secure ground; diplomacy was his profession; what did the professors and talkers in the Chamber know of it?  They were trying to control the policy of the State, but, he said, “in these days an Assembly of 350 members cannot in the last instance direct the policy of a great Power.”  The Government asked for a loan for military operations; he appealed to their patriotism, but it was in vain; the House voted an address to the King, remonstrating against the conduct of foreign affairs, and threw out the loan by a majority of 275 to 51.  “If you do not vote the money, we shall take it where we can get it,” Bismarck had warned them.  The House was immediately prorogued after a session of only two months, not to meet again till January, 1865.

This policy of Bismarck was proposed by Austria and Prussia at the Diet; the other States refused to adopt it, as they wished to raise the question of succession; on a division Prussia was outvoted.  The two great Powers therefore entered into a separate agreement in which, while still recognising the integrity of the Danish Monarchy, they undertook to force the King to withdraw the obnoxious Constitution, and, if he did not consent to do so, they agreed to occupy Schleswig.

The Prussian House, in its address to the King, had declared that the only result of this policy would be to give back the Duchies to Denmark.  Was there no fear of this?  What would have happened had Denmark after all given in, as England strongly pressed her to do?  Had she withdrawn the obnoxious Constitution, and granted all that Bismarck asked, why then Prussia and Austria would have been bound to support the integrity of Denmark, and, if necessary, by force of arms to eject the Federal troops from Holstein.  Bismarck had considered this contingency, and guarded himself against it.  Many years later Beust put the question to him.  “Oh, I was all right,” he answered; “I had assured myself that the Danes would not give in.  I had led them to think that England would support them, though I knew this was not the case.”  He had, however, even a surer guarantee than this; the ultimatum presented to Denmark was couched in such a form that even if he would the King could not comply with it.  The requirement was that the Constitution should be revoked before the 1st of January.  By the Constitution the King could not do this of his own prerogative; he must have the assent of the Rigsrad.  This