“During his residence in Vienna the most important negotiations which he had to carry on with the Austrian Government were those connected with the Mexican affair.  Maximilian at one time applied to his brother the Emperor for assistance, and he promised to accede to his demand.  Accordingly a large number of volunteers were equipped and had actually embarked at Trieste, when a dispatch from Seward arrived, instructing the American Minister to give notice to the Austrian Government that if the troops sailed for Mexico he was to leave Vienna at once.  My father had to go at once to Count Mensdorff with these instructions, and in spite of the Foreign Minister being annoyed that the United States Government had not sooner intimated that this extreme course would be taken, the interview was quite amicable and the troops were not allowed to sail.  We were in Vienna during the war in which Denmark fought alone against Austria and Prussia, and when it was over Bismarck came to Vienna to settle the terms of peace with the Emperor.  He dined with us twice during his short stay, and was most delightful and agreeable.  When he and my father were together they seemed to live over the youthful days they had spent together as students, and many were the anecdotes of their boyish frolics which Bismarck related.”

XVII.

1861-1863.  AEt. 47-49.

Letters from Vienna.

Soon after Mr. Motley’s arrival in Vienna I received a long letter from him, most of which relates to personal matters, but which contains a few sentences of interest to the general reader as showing his zealous labors, wherever he found himself, in behalf of the great cause then in bloody debate in his own country: 

November 14, 1861.

. . .  What can I say to you of cis-Atlantic things?  I am almost ashamed to be away from home.  You know that I had decided to remain, and had sent for my family to come to America, when my present appointment altered my plans.  I do what good I can.  I think I made some impression on Lord John Russell, with whom I spent two days soon after my arrival in England, and I talked very frankly and as strongly as I could to Palmerston, and I have had long conversations and correspondences with other leading men in England.  I have also had an hour’s [conversation] with Thouvenel in Paris.  I hammered the Northern view into him as soundly as I could.  For this year there will be no foreign interference with us.  I don’t anticipate it at any time, unless we bring it on ourselves by bad management, which I don’t expect.  Our fate is in our own hands, and Europe is looking on to see which side is strongest,—­when it has made the discovery it will back it as also the best and the most moral.  Yesterday I had my audience with the Emperor.  He received me with much cordiality, and seemed interested in a long account