—“You must support your words by arms, I admit. But that will not be war, because you do not want to make war. No, it will not be war, because Prussia does not want it any more than you do. But Prussia will yield before the possibility of seeing England entering the fight at a time when she has need of all her strength to finish off with France alone.”
“How should you know that?” he answered. “What guarantee can you give me? Allow me to tell you,” and he smiled very graciously in order to sweeten his words, “you are not in the counsels of the King at Versailles and you cannot know anything about it any more than I can.”
“I do not know, it is true; but may one not make calculations?
“You know even better than I how immensely the whole of Germany desires to see the war ended. Prussia thinks that with France alone she will soon reach her goal. Will she be willing to prolong the war and in a sense renew it with a great Power like England? And I am entitled to tell you that England would not be alone with France in such a war.
“I have just come from Vienna. I was told at Vienna, and authorised to repeat it to you, that Austria is disposed to go hand-in-hand with England in everything that concerns France. Austria would follow England if the latter would decide to intervene effectively in favour of France.”
“... Who told you that?” Lord Granville quickly interrupted me. “Was it M. de Beust?”
As I saw that Lord Granville was in no way inclined to do what I asked him, it did not seem necessary to answer him and perhaps to compromise a sincere and devoted friend by publishing the secret of his friendly disposition towards ourselves. So I answered this question by saying that, if Lord Granville would be kind enough to wait a moment, I would later on tell him who was the person in question. The promise, however, had been made me in Vienna, it had been made in full view of its provoking action on the part of England, and I had been expressly authorised to speak of it here.
“But that would be war—and we do not want war!” he answered energetically.
“No, it will not be war. On the contrary, it will be the end of war,” I said with spirit. “It is certainly very bold of me to want to foresee events better than you and contradict a view which appears to you sound. But I say it with conviction, it will not be war. No, it will be peace, and a peace worthy of two nations, a durable peace.
“And this is the reason why. In the face of European intervention, brought about by the initiative of England, Prussia would be obliged to diminish her exorbitant pretensions, and France would, on her side, be reasonable and listen to the counsels of Europe.