"Your majesty," replied Mensdorff, "when the first cannon has been fired, Prussia will be utterly regardless of all national laws; and Hanover has long been the object of Prussian desires."
"So long as the sword of Austria is not shattered in my hand by the pitiless storm of war," cried the emperor proudly, "no German prince shall lose his crown."
Mensdorff was silent. The emperor paced the room hastily, and then stood again before his minister. "You do not believe in our success?" he said, with a penetrating look at the count.
"Your majesty, I wear the uniform of an Austrian general, and I stand before my emperor on the eve of a mighty war, when all the banners of the Imperial States will be unrolled. How would it beseem me to doubt the success of the Austrian arms?"
The emperor tapped his foot on the ground. "That is no answer," said he, "I question not the general, but the minister."
"I would," returned Mensdorff, "that I stood as a general before your majesty, or rather before your enemies; then my heart would be lighter;" and he added, almost gloomily, "then I should have greater hopes of victory, at least I could give my life to obtain it. As a minister," he continued after a momentary pause, "I have already given your majesty my opinion, and I can only again express my most earnest wish--that it will please you to take from me this weighty responsibility, and permit me to draw the sword."
The emperor made no answer to the count's last request.
"But my dear Mensdorff," he said, "I know your Austrian heart; does it not beat higher at the thought of again raising in Germany the ancient power of the house of Hapsburg, and of breaking the might of that dangerous rival who would root out Austria and my royal house from Germany, the old inheritance of my fathers? Shall I give up this opportunity, which perhaps may never again occur?"
"Your majesty cannot bear in your heart deeper love to Austria, nor greater pride in your noble house, than I," replied Count Mensdorff warmly; "and I would give the last drop of my blood to see you again enthroned from Rome to Frankfort, surrounded by the princes of the empire, as lord and leader of Germany; but----"
"But?" cried the emperor with kindling eyes. "Do you believe the object is to be attained without throwing the sword into the balance? That man in Berlin, himself, says, 'Blood and the Sword must regenerate Germany.' Now let the sword decide, and may the blood be upon him."