“Ah, that unlucky Schmidt & Sons!”
“But now when new clouds are gathering——”
“Then you really believe that——”
“I believe that these clouds will disperse again. The two great powers will not tear each other to pieces for those northern countries. But now that it seems threatening again, retirement would have a cowardly look. You must see that too?”
I was obliged to be guided by this reasoning. But I clung to the hopeful phrase: “These clouds will disperse again”.
I now followed with anxiety the development of political events, and the opinions and prophecies about them that were current in the newspapers and public speeches. “Be prepared!” “Be prepared!” was the cry now. “Prussia is silently preparing.” “Austria is silently preparing.” “The Prussians assert that we are preparing, and it is not true, it is they who are preparing.” “You lie.” “No, it is not true that we are preparing.” “If they prepare, we must prepare also. If we leave off our preparations, who knows if they will?” And so the note of preparation sounded in my ear in all possible variations.
“But then what is all this clang of arms for, if one is not to take them in hand?” I asked, to which my father answered in the old phrase:—
“Si vis pacem, para bellum; we, that is, are only preparing out of precaution”.
“And the other side?”
“With a view of attacking us.”