a party, even though he might thereby be sacrificing the interests of his country to a temporary emergency.  He really applied to home affairs the habits he had learned in diplomacy; there every alliance is temporary; when the occasion of it has passed by, it ceases, and leaves no permanent effect.  He tried to govern Germany by a series of political alliances; but the alliance of the Government with a party can never be barren; the laws to which it gives birth remain.  Bismarck sometimes thought more of the advantage of the alliance than of the permanent effect of the laws.

Even after this there was still delay; there were the usual abortive attempts at a congress, which, as in 1859, broke down through the refusal of Austria to give way.  There were dark intrigues of Napoleon, who even at the last moment attempted to divert the Italians from their Prussian alliance.  In Germany there was extreme indignation against the man who was forcing his country into a fratricidal war.  Bismarck had often received threatening letters; now an attempt was made on his life; as he was walking along Unter den Linden a young man approached and fired several shots at him.  He was seized by Bismarck, and that night put an end to his own life in prison.  He was a South German who wished to save his country from the horrors of civil war.  Moltke, now that all was prepared, was anxious to begin.  Bismarck still hesitated; he was so cautious that he would not take the first step.  At last the final provocation came, as he hoped it would, from Austria.  He knew that if he waited long enough they would take the initiative.  They proposed to summon the Estates of Holstein, and at the same time brought the question of the Duchies before the Diet.  Bismarck declared that this was a breach of the Treaty of Gastein, and that that agreement was therefore void; Prussian troops were ordered to enter Holstein.  Austria appealed for protection to the Diet, and moved that the Federal forces should be mobilised.  The motion was carried by nine votes to seven.  The Prussian Envoy then rose and declared that this was a breach of the Federal law; Prussia withdrew from the Federation and declared war on all those States which had supported Austria.  Hanover and Hesse had to the end attempted to maintain neutrality, but this Bismarck would not allow; they were given the alternative of alliance with Prussia or disarmament.  The result was that, when war began, the whole of Germany, except the small northern States, was opposed to Prussia.  “I have no ally but the Duke of Mecklenburg and Mazzini,” said the King.

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CHAPTER XI.

THE CONQUEST OF GERMANY.

1866.