He hesitated a moment before replying, whilst the emperor's eyes seemed to hang upon his lips.
"Your majesty, the field-marshal must have most cogent reasons for his request; usually he fears no danger, and dashing boldness, rather than cautious prudence, is his characteristic."
"Your majesty's brave and brilliant army unfit to fight!" cried Count Crenneville; "how can the field-marshal justify such ideas?"
"He promises to justify them," said the emperor.
Count Crenneville shrugged his shoulders in silence, whilst Baron Gablenz asked, "Can your majesty still make peace?"
"If I place Austria for ever in the second rank in Germany, or rather if I permit her to be thrust out from Germany--yes; if I give Prussia a double revenge for Olmütz--yes! otherwise I cannot."
Count Crenneville looked anxiously at the general, who stood lost in thought. "Your majesty," he said at last, in a quiet, impressive voice, "no one can rate the power of our enemy higher than I. I have been with Prussia in the field, and I know her material and moral power. Both are immense; her arms are excellent, and the needle-gun is a frightful weapon. If we alone were opposed to Prussia, I should go to the war with a heavy heart. I am reassured by our German Confederation."
"The army of the confederacy," said Count Mensdorff.
"It is not the military contingent alone that I throw into the balance," continued Baron Gablenz, "but the fact that these separate armies will absorb the Prussian troops, and compel the enemy to a complicated campaign. Had I been able to remain in Hanover, this advantage would have been still greater. However, even without that combination Prussia must fight with very divided forces, whilst we shall be able to concentrate our army. This, your majesty, is my comfort; in this rests my hope of success, however severe may be the conflict. This is my opinion as a general. As to the condition of the army and its fitness for a battle, I cannot speak until I have seen it, and know the reasons for the field-marshal's judgment. On the political situation I need not hazard my ideas, neither would your majesty probably care to possess them; this only would I say, if Austria's honour is engaged I would refuse to yield; a lost battle even is less hurtful than to retreat without having drawn the sword."
The general ceased speaking, and for a few moments silence prevailed in the cabinet.